whilere
Syllables: whil·ere/ʍaɪˈlɛː/US/ʍaɪˈleɹ/
whilere adverb: a while ago; a time before; formerly, previously.
Adverb
whilere (not comparable)
- A while ago; a time before; formerly, previously.
- VVe met that villen (God from him me bleſſe) / That curſed wight, from whom I ſcapt whyleare, / A man of hell, that cals himſelfe Deſpayre: […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 28, page 127
- Thou mak'ſt me merry: I am full of pleaſure, / Let vs be iocond. Will you troule the Catch / You taught me but whileare?1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
- Synonyms:
- erewhile, erstwhile, afore, aforehand, already, antecedently, at one time, before, beforehand, beforetime
- Antonyms:
- anymore, any more, at present, at the minute, at the moment, at this moment in time, atm, currently, just now, now
Synonyms of whilere
19 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
- anymore
- any more
- at present
- at the minute
- at the moment
- at this moment in time
- atm
- currently
- just now
- now
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of whilere
| alternative form | while-ere |
|---|
Origin of whilere
From Middle English whil er, whileere [and other forms], whilom er (“some while ago or before, formerly”), from Old English hwīle ǣr, hwīlum ǣr, from hwīle (accusative singular of hwīl), hwīlum (“at some time in the past, once; sometimes”) (dative plural of hwīl (“period of time, a while”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷyeh₁- (“to rest; peace, rest”)) + ǣr (“before”) (ultimately from Proto-Germanic *airiz (“before, earlier”)). The English word is analysable as while + ere.
Questions about whilere
- What does whilere mean?
- Whilere means a while ago; a time before; formerly, previously.
- What part of speech is whilere?
- Whilere is an adverb.
- How do you pronounce whilere?
- Whilere is pronounced /ʍaɪˈlɛː/ (UK).
Words near whilere in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: whilere (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-whilere.wav.
Cite this entry: “whilere.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whilere. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.