meantime

meantime

See also: mean time

English

Alternative forms

• mean time

Etymology

From Middle English menetime, equivalent to mean +‎ time. Adverb is by ellipsis from in the meantime.

Pronunciation

• enPR: mēnʹtīm, IPA^(key): /ˈmiːntaɪm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

meantime (countable and uncountable, plural meantimes)

1. The time spent waiting for another event; time in between.

   I'll get started tomorrow but, in the meantime, let's see if we can get a few more opinions.

Synonyms

• between-time, meanwhile; see also Thesaurus:interim

Derived terms

Derived terms

• for the mean time, for the meantime
• in mean time, in meantime
• in the mean time, in the meantime
• this mean time, this meantime

Related terms

• meanwhile

Translations

time in between

Dutch: ondertussen (nl) Esperanto: intertempo French: pendant ce temps (fr) Greek: Ancient: ἐν τούτοις (en toútois) (byzantine) Italian: frattempo (it) m, attesa (it) Latin: interea, interim Polish: międzyczas (pl) m Serbo-Croatian: međuvrijeme (sh) n Spanish: entretanto (es) m Welsh: cyfamser m

Adverb

meantime (comparative more meantime, superlative most meantime)

1. during the interval; meanwhile
   • 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress:

     Meantime Pope Urban II convoked two councils, one after another.

   • 1934, Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance, Bantam edition edition, published 1992, →ISBN, page 97:

     Lunch will be in twenty minutes. Meantime: I have […]

Usage notes

Usually appears sentence-initially.

Translations

meanwhile

Chinese: Mandarin: 其間／其间 (zh) (qíjiān), 與此同時／与此同时 (zh) (yǔcǐtóngshí) Finnish: sillä välin (fi) German: unterdessen (de) Japanese: その間 (そのあいだ, sono aida) Korean: 그동안 (ko) (geudong'an) Russian: тем вре́менем (ru) (tem vrémenem), ме́жду те́м (ru) (méždu tém) Spanish: en tanto (locution), entre tanto (locution), entretanto (es)

Anagrams

• antimeme