Word.ws English Dictionary

in the twinkling of an eye

in the twinkling of an eye prepositional phrase: immediately; instantaneously.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Immediately; instantaneously.
    • Father, come, ile take my leaue of the Iew in the twinkling of an eye.c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act...
    • All my dreams for him have been cut short in the twinkling of an eye. Why was my son murdered?2007 April 28, Hugh Muir, The Guardian

Synonyms of in the twinkling of an eye

Origin of in the twinkling of an eye

From Middle English in the twynklyng of an iȝe, in þe twynklynk of an eiȝe, from the Bible, 1 Corinthians 15:52: We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

Questions about in the twinkling of an eye

What does in the twinkling of an eye mean?
In the twinkling of an eye means immediately; instantaneously.
What part of speech is in the twinkling of an eye?
In the twinkling of an eye is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in the twinkling of an eye in the dictionary

  1. in the throws of
  2. in the toilet
  3. in the trenches
  4. in the twinkling of a bedpost
  5. in the twinkling of a bedstaff
  6. in the twinkling of an eye
  7. in the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king
  8. in the vein of
  9. in the wake of
  10. in the wars
  11. in the way

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in the twinkling of an eye (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-in the twinkling of an eye.ogg.

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