once upon a time

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwʌns.əˈpɑn.əˈtaɪ̯m/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adverb

once upon a time (not comparable)

1. A long time ago; at some time in the past (a traditional beginning of children's stories, especially fairy tales).

   Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a beautiful princess.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 308:

     There was once upon a time a charcoal-burner who had a son, and he was also a charcoal-burner.

   • 2023, A. C. MacDonald, Twistwood Tales (comic), Andrews McMeel, →ISBN, page 138:

     Once upon a time, there was a Goblin Queen
     And she lived in a grand palace...

2. formerly
   • 2012, Christoper Zara, chapter 2, in Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative Minds, page {{{pg}}}:

     Long before popular music evolved its many genres and subgenres, the industry was driven by a simple one-size-fits-all philosophy […] Songwriters, once upon a time, wrote songs for the masses.

Usage notes

• Not to be confused with upon a time, which has a different meaning.

Synonyms

• (a long time ago): anciently, way back; see also Thesaurus:long ago

Translations

• Note: Many of the translations are literally “There once was” or "One time". The translation of “Once upon a time, there was a princess” into Italian, for example, would therefore be “C’era una volta una principessa” (literally, “There was once a princess”).

traditional beginning of children’s stories, especially fairy tales

• Abenaki: agwa
• Albanian: na ishte njëherë
• Arabic: كَان يَامَا كَان (kān yāmā kān)

  Algerian Arabic: جيتك ما جيتك (jaytek mā jaytek)

  Moroccan Arabic: حاجيتك ما جيتك (ḥājītak mā jītak)

• Armenian: կար-չկար (kar-čʻkar), լինում է, չի լինում (linum ē, čʻi linum)
• Asturian: ello foi una vegada
• Azerbaijani: biri var idi, biri yox idi, günlərin bir günündə
• Bashkir: борон-борон заманда (boron-boron zamanda)
• Basque: bazen behin (eu), behin batean (eu)
• Breton: ur wech e oa (br)
• Bulgarian: имало едно време (imalo edno vreme)
• Catalan: hi havia una vegada, això era una vegada
• Cebuano: kaniadtong panahona
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 很久很久以前 (hěnjiǔ hěnjiǔ yǐqián), 從前／从前 (zh) (cóngqián)

• Czech: bylo nebylo
• Danish: der var engang
• Dutch: er was eens
• Esperanto: iam estis
• Estonian: oli kord, elas kord, üks kord ennemuistsel ajal, ükskord (et)
• Faroese: einaferð var tað
• Finnish: olipa kerran, olipa kerran kauan sitten
• French: il était une fois (fr), il y avait une fois (fr)
• Galician: había unha vez, cando os animais falaban (literally “when animals spoke”)
• Georgian: იყო და არა იყო რა (iq̇o da ara iq̇o ra), იყო და არა იყო რა, ღვთის უკეთესი რა იქნებოდა (iq̇o da ara iq̇o ra, ɣvtis uḳetesi ra ikneboda)
• German: es war einmal (de)
• Greek: μια φορά κι έναν καιρό (el) (mia forá ki énan kairó), μια φορά ήταν δεν ήταν (mia forá ítan den ítan)

  Ancient: ἦν γάρ ποτε χρόνος (ên gár pote khrónos), οὕτω ποτ' ἦν μῦς καὶ γαλῆ (hoútō pot' ên mûs kaì galê)

• Hebrew: הָיֹה הָיָה (he) m (hayó hayá)
• Hindi: किसी ज़माने में (kisī zamāne mẽ)
• Hungarian: egyszer volt, hol nem volt (hu), hol volt, hol nem volt
• Icelandic: einu sinni var, það var einu sinni
• Ido: olim (io)
• Igbo: orue otu mgbe
• Indonesian: pada suatu hari
• Interlingua: il era un vice, olim
• Irish: feacht n-aon, fadó fadó, tráth dá raibh, lá den saol
• Italian: c'era una volta
• Jamaican Creole: one time
• Japanese: 昔昔 (ja) (or 昔々, むかしむかし, mukashi-mukashi), 今は昔 (ima wa mukashi)
• Khmer: កាលពីព្រេងនាយ (kaal pii preing niəy), កាលដើមឡើយ (kaaldaəmlaəy)
• Komi-Zyrian: оліс-выліс (olis-vylis)
• Korean: 옛날 옛적에 (yennal yetjeoge), 옛날 옛적 (yennal yetjeok)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ڕۆژێ لە ڕۆژان (rojê le rojan), ھەبوو نەبوو (hebû nebû)

  Northern Kurdish: hebû tune bû, hebû nebû, rojek ji rojan (ku), carekê ji caran (ku)

• Latin: ōlim (la)
• Latvian: reiz sensenos laikos
• Lithuanian: seniai, labai seniai
• Malay: pada suatu masa, pada suatu hari
• Malayalam: ഒരിക്കൽ (ml) (orikkal), പണ്ടൊരിക്കൽ (paṇṭorikkal)
• Maori: tērā tētahi (singular), tērā ētahi (plural)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: det var en gang (no)

  Nynorsk: det var ein gong

• Old English: ǣr, ġēara, ġēardagum, fyrn, ġefyrn
• Persian: روزی روزگاری (ruzi ruzegâri), یکی بود یکی نبود (yeki bud yeki nabud), روزی از روزها (ruzi az ruz-hâ)
• Plautdietsch: donnemol
• Polish: pewnego razu; dawno, dawno temu (pl); za górami, za lasami (pl)
• Portuguese: era uma vez (pt), havia uma vez
• Romanian: a fost odată, a fost odată ca niciodată
• Russian: ^{(please verify)} давны́м-давно́ (ru) (davným-davnó), ^{(please verify)} в тридевя́том ца́рстве, в тридеся́том госуда́рстве (v tridevjátom cárstve, v tridesjátom gosudárstve), ^{(please verify)} жил-был (ru) (žil-byl)
• Sanskrit: पुराकाले (purākāle), कदाचित् (sa) (kadācit)
• Sardinian: B'aiat una borta
• Scottish Gaelic: bha siud ann uaireigin
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ^{(please verify)} некада давно, ^{(please verify)} била једном једна, ^{(please verify)} једном давно

  Roman: ^{(please verify)} nekada davno, ^{(please verify)} bila jednom jedna, ^{(please verify)} jednom davno

• Slovak: ^{(please verify)} kde bolo, tam bolo, ^{(please verify)} za siedmimi horami, za siedmimi dolami
• Spanish: érase una vez (es), había una vez (es), era una vez
• Sranan Tongo: er tin tin
• Swahili: hapo zamani za kale
• Swedish: det var en gång (sv)
• Tagalog: noóng unang panahón
• Tamil: முன்பு ஒது தாள் (muṉpu otu tāḷ), முன்பு ஒது காலம் (muṉpu otu kālam)
• Telugu: ఒకానొకప్పుడు (okānokappuḍu)
• Thai: กาลครั้งหนึ่ง (gaa-lá-kráng-nʉ̀ng)
• Tok Pisin: bipo tru
• Turkish: bir varmış, bir yokmuş
• Ukrainian: жили-були (žyly-buly), давним давно (davnym davno)
• Urdu: کسی زمانے میں (kisī zamāne mẽ)
• Vietnamese: ngày xửa ngày xưa (vi)
• Welsh: unwaith (cy)
• Wolof: amone nafi
• Yiddish: אַ מאָל (a mol)

Further reading

• Once upon a time (phrase) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia