Word.ws English Dictionary

way back when

way back when adverb: at a time in the distant past.

Adverb

way back when

  1. (idiomatic) At a time in the distant past.
    • The book's enduring power is also evident in its big-headed tripods from outer space, described perfectly by Wells way back when.2005 July 8, Caryn James, “Critic's Notebook: When the Film Outshines The Novel”, in New York Times, retrieved 02 Mar 2018

Adjective

way back when

  1. (idiomatic) At a time in the distant past.
    • Even Warren Buffett was skeptical of Amazon way back when.2017 May 15, Andrew Ross Sorkin, “20 Years On, Amazon and Jeff Bezos Prove Naysayers Wrong”, in New York Times, retrieved 02 Mar 2018

Questions about way back when

What does way back when mean?
Way back when means at a time in the distant past.
What part of speech is way back when?
Way back when can be an adverb or an adjective.

Words near way back when in the dictionary

  1. waxy spleen
  2. waxycap
  3. waxycaps
  4. way
  5. way back
  6. way back when
  7. way bill
  8. way bills
  9. way enough
  10. way enoughed
  11. way enoughing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: way back when (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-way back when.ogg.

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