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)

• Icelandic: í millitíðinni (is), á meðan (is)
• Italian: frattempo (it) m, contempo (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 (not comparable)

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, published 1992, →ISBN, page 97:

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

   • 1951 May, J. Pelham Maitland, “A Memorable Run by a Brighton "Terrier"”, in Railway Magazine, page 347:

     Meantime, the train went on to Brighton without further incident. No small stir was caused by its arrival with No. 61 at its head, resplendent with "East London Line Special" head boards, which at once caught the eye of William Stroudley, who was observing the traffic working from his office window.

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 (es) (locution), entre tanto (locution), entretanto (es)

Anagrams

• antimeme