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

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

Translations

• Dutch: ondertussen (nl)
• Esperanto: intertempo
• French: pendant ce temps (fr)
• Italian: frattempo (it) m, attesa (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latin: interea, interim
• Polish: międzyczas (pl) m
• Serbo-Croatian: međuvrijeme (sh) n
• Spanish: entretanto (es) 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, 1992 Bantam edition, →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), 其间 (zh) (qíjiān), 與此同時／与此同时 (zh) (yǔcǐtóngshí), 与此同时 (zh) (yǔcǐtóngshí)

• Finnish: sillä välin (fi)
• German: unterdessen (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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)