meanwhile

UK/ˈmiːnwaɪl/US/ˈmiːnwaɪl/

adverbB12 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,798 of 15,258leans written

Meanwhile means while that other thing was going on. She was stuck on the motorway with a flat tyre; meanwhile, the guests were arriving and the oven was still cold.

It also swings the camera. 'Ticket prices keep rising. Meanwhile, the trains get slower' uses meanwhile to jump to another group or another side of the story, and the overlap in time barely matters. It sits at the front of the sentence with a comma after it. In the meantime is the near twin, and it is the one to reach for when somebody is waiting: the plumber comes on Thursday; in the meantime, use the downstairs tap. The mistake to avoid is treating meanwhile as a joining word — 'Meanwhile I was cooking, he slept' is wrong, and that sentence wants while instead.

Definitions of meanwhile

1adverbmeanwhileDuring the same period of time; while something else is happening.B1~2%
“He unpacked the shopping; meanwhile the dog worked its way through the bread.”
synonyms: in the meantime, at the same time
2adverbturnUsed to turn to another subject, place or group, often to point up a contrast.B2~98%
“The city has three new theatres. Meanwhile, the library has been shut for two years.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 7 sentences found in the wild and placed 7 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Where it comes from

Meanwhile comes from Middle English menewhile, simply mean plus while. The adverb is a shortening of the older phrase in the mean while, which is why in the meantime still sounds so familiar: it is the same phrase with a different second half.

Middle English
menewhile
English, today
meanwhile

From Middle English menewhile, equivalent to mean + while. Adverb is by ellipsis from in the mean while, noun being conventionally written as one word after the adjective.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Time & Calendar, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 20 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

meanwhile in the wild

Valencia, meanwhile, had to play two English sides en route to the final, first beating Arsenal then Leeds United.
2000–01 UEFA Champions League knockout stage
The Conservatives, meanwhile, suffered defeat with a net loss of 178 seats, winning 30.7% of the vote.
1997 United Kingdom general election
The Lady Tigers, meanwhile, captured their sixth consecutive title and, ultimately, the sixth of eleven straight titles they won between 1987 and 1997.
1992 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships
The Lady Tigers, meanwhile, captured their eighth consecutive title and, ultimately, the eighth of eleven straight titles they won between 1987 and 1997.
1994 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships
The Lady Tigers, meanwhile, captured their ninth consecutive title and, ultimately, the ninth of eleven straight titles they won between 1987 and 1997.
1995 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Definitions of meanwhile

1adverbmeanwhileDuring the same period of time; while something else is happening.B1~2%

“He unpacked the shopping; meanwhile the dog worked its way through the bread.”

synonyms: in the meantime, at the same time

2adverbturnUsed to turn to another subject, place or group, often to point up a contrast.B2~98%

“The city has three new theatres. Meanwhile, the library has been shut for two years.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 7 sentences found in the wild and placed 7 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.