Example: I will finish my homework; in the meantime, you can play.
Definition
"In the meantime" is an expression used to refer to the period of time between two events, indicating what can be done or what is happening while waiting for something else to occur.
The phrase "in the meantime" originates from the combination of 'in,' meaning during, and 'meantime,' which historically referred to the interval or middle period between two events. The term 'meantime' itself comes from the Old English 'mǣntīd,' where 'mǣn' means mean or middle and 'tīd' means time. Did you know that 'meantime' was originally a noun before evolving into this common temporal phrase?
Learn to use this expression actively
"In the meantime" appears in the Vocaplus list "English - General - Idioms and Proverbs - (B2) - set 1", containing 103 commonly used expressions.
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