meanwhile
/ˈmiːnwʌɪl
/adverb
1 (also in the meanwhile) In the intervening period of time: meanwhile, I will give you a prescription for some pills...
- President Eisenhower was furious and the Soviets, meanwhile, threatened to intervene on behalf of Egypt.
- And in the meanwhile, they managed to reach the 2.6GHz frequency.
- But in the meanwhile, something new looms on our horizon.
Synonyms
for now, for the moment, for the present, for the time being, meantime, in the meantime, in the intervening period, in the interim, in the interval, in the meanwhile, the while, temporarily;
Latin pro tem, ad interim;
French en attendant
1.1At the same time: steam for a further five minutes; meanwhile, make a white sauce...
- I glared with horror at Lucien for his crude statement, all in the meanwhile backing away from the two of them in an embarrassing attempt to hide my appalling state.
Synonyms
at the same time, simultaneously, concurrently, the while
2On the other hand: he has said little, meanwhile, about how he plans to live his life...
- Luke, meanwhile, was still safe in the preserve of private school, where he might be subject to the push and pull of peer pressure, but was better isolated from the starkness of the bankrupt city around us.
- Denton, meanwhile, suggests that it's wrong to judge the franchises on their (admittedly patchy) short-term results.
- Vega, meanwhile, sounds as menacing as before.
Origin
Late Middle English: from mean3 + while.