Afterwards means at a later time, following something else. When your teacher says “We'll have recess, and afterwards we'll start math,” she means math comes after recess is finished. If you eat dinner and afterwards play outside, the playing happens when dinner is done.

The word helps sequence events in time. You might read a book about explorers crossing the ocean, and afterwards (when you're done reading) discuss it with your class. Or you could visit a museum and afterwards get ice cream as a treat.

Afterwards is similar to words like later, then, or subsequently, but it specifically points to what follows a particular event or action. When someone asks “What happened afterwards?” they want to know what came next in the story.

Notice that afterwards looks back to connect with what came before it. You can't use it to start a story because there's nothing for it to come after. But once something has happened, afterwards is the perfect word to introduce what followed.