meanwhile
/ˈmiːnwaɪl/
meanwhile noun: the time between two events.
Noun
meanwhile (plural meanwhiles)
- The time between two events.
- In the meanwhile, the surveyors carried the line three miles, which was no contemptible day's work, considering how cruelly they were entangled with briers and gallbushes.Quoted in 2002, Stephen C. Ausband, Byrd's Line: A Natural History (page 37)
- Synonyms:
- between-time, meantime
Adverb
meanwhile (not comparable)
- During the time that something is happening, often specifically in a different place.
- There was a party going on downstairs. Meanwhile, I was reading a book.
- Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- in the meantime, meantime, meanwhilst, the while
- During an intervening time; from now until a future time.
- We’re going on holiday next month; meanwhile, keep working on the project.
- The day may dawn when fair play, love for one's fellow men, respect for justice and freedom, will enable tormented generations to march forth triumphant from the hideous epoch in which we have to dwell. Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair.1955 March 1, Winston Churchill, “Defence”, in parliamentary debates (House of Commons), column 1905
- In contrast to aspects previously mentioned.
- Some songs on the album are beautiful. Meanwhile, others are quite forgettable.
- When you are in the studio you don’t have anybody to feed off of, meanwhile when you are playing live you interact with people and you feel the energy in the room.2013 March 29, Markos Papadatos, quoting Marina Diamandis, “Marina And The Diamonds on 'How to be a Heartbreaker'”, in Greek Reporter
- Synonyms:
- at the same time, on the other hand
meanwhile meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
meanwhile in Tamil
- அதற்குள், இடைநேரத்தில், இடைப்பட்ட நேரத்தில்
meanwhile in Marathi
- meanwhile
- दरम्यान daramyān
meanwhile in Urdu
- meanwhile
- اس دوران میں is daurān mẽ
meanwhile in Bengali
- meanwhile
- মাঝে majhe
More languagesFewer languages
- meanwhile in Telugu
- ఇంతలో
- meanwhile in Malayalam
- ഇടവേളയിൽ, ഇടയ്ക്കുള്ള സമയത്ത്, ഈസമയംകൊണ്ട്, തത്ക്കാലം
- meanwhile in Kannada
- ಏತನ್ಮಧ್ಯೆ
- meanwhile in Sanskrit
- तावत् tā́vat
- meanwhile in Nepali
- यसैबिच
- meanwhile in Arabic
- أَمَّا ʔammā, إِلَى حِينِ ذَلِكَ الوَقْتِ فِي الأَثْنَاءِ ʔilā ḥīni ḏalika al-waqti, فِي حِينِ أَنَّ fī ḥīni ʔanna
- meanwhile in Malay
- sementara itu, pada masa yang sama
- meanwhile in Persian
- در این فاصله dar in fâsele
Examples of meanwhile in a sentence
- Meanwhile, Kailash is also the only jokul in China that was explicitly banned from climbing.
- Meanwhile on The View, Whoopi Goldberg and friends continue to spout their takes on the hot topics of the day.
- Meanwhile I'm arguing with strangers about World Cup predictions on Melee.
Synonyms of meanwhile
Forms of meanwhile
| plural | meanwhiles |
|---|
Origin of meanwhile
From Middle English menewhile, equivalent to mean (“intermediate”) + while. Adverb is by ellipsis from in the mean while, noun being conventionally written as one word after the adjective.
Words formed from meanwhile
Phrases with meanwhile
Questions about meanwhile
- What does meanwhile mean?
- Meanwhile means the time between two events.
- What is meanwhile in Tamil?
- Meanwhile in Tamil is அதற்குள், இடைநேரத்தில், இடைப்பட்ட நேரத்தில். See Meanwhile meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is meanwhile?
- Meanwhile can be a noun or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce meanwhile?
- Meanwhile is pronounced /ˈmiːnwaɪl/.
- What is the plural of meanwhile?
- The plural of meanwhile is meanwhiles.
Words near meanwhile in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: meanwhile (page history and authors); meanwhile (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); दरम्यान (Marathi) (page history and authors); اس دوران میں (Urdu) (page history and authors); মাঝে (Bengali) (page history and authors); meanwhile (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); meanwhile (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); meanwhile (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); तावत् (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); meanwhile (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-meanwhile.wav.
Cite this entry: “meanwhile.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/meanwhile. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.