after vs past

after

adv
  • Behind; later in time; following. 

prep
  • In pursuit of, seeking. 

  • In allusion to, in imitation of; following or referencing. 

  • In spite of. 

  • Behind. 

  • Next in importance or rank. 

  • Denoting the aim or object; concerning; in relation to. 

  • Subsequently to; following in time; later than. 

  • Used to indicate recent completion of an activity 

  • As a result of. 

conj
  • Signifies that the action of the clause it starts takes place before the action of the other clause. 

adj
  • At or towards the stern of a ship. 

past

adv
  • In a direction that passes. 

adj
  • Of a period of time: having just gone by; previous. 

  • Having already happened; in the past; finished. 

  • Following expressions of time to indicate how long ago something happened; ago. 

  • Of a tense, expressing action that has already happened or a previously-existing state. 

noun
  • The period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future. 

  • The past tense. 

prep
  • Beyond in place or quantity 

  • Any number of minutes after the last hour 

  • Having recovered or moved on from (a traumatic experience, etc.). 

  • No longer capable of. 

  • Passing by, especially without stopping or being delayed. 

How often have the words after and past occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )