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until.

Up to the time of (something happening); pending.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

prep/ʌnˈtɪl/Canada, UK/ənˈtɪl/Canada, UK/ʊnˈtɪl/Canada, UK/ʌnˈtɪl/US
  1. Up to the time of (something happening); pending.

    If you can wait until after my meeting with her, we'll talk then.
  2. Up to (a certain place)

    Keep walking until the second set of traffic lights, then turn left.
  3. Before (a time).

  4. To; physically towards.

    obsolete
  5. Up to the time that the foods or other things available to sell, or tasks which need to be completed, run out.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English vntil, until, untill, ontil, ontill, perhaps representing a northern variant of Middle English unto (see Modern English unto). By surface analysis, un- (“against; toward; up to”) + till.

conj/ʌnˈtɪl/Canada, UK/ənˈtɪl/Canada, UK/ʊnˈtɪl/Canada, UK/ʌnˈtɪl/US
  1. Up to the time that (a condition becomes true).

    Not until I got his email did I fully understand his disappointment.
    It took us a week before/until we got the house repainted.
  2. Before (a condition becoming true).

Where this word comes from

From Middle English vntil, until, untill, ontil, ontill, perhaps representing a northern variant of Middle English unto (see Modern English unto). By surface analysis, un- (“against; toward; up to”) + till.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.