then - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English then(ne), than(ne), from Old English þonne, þanne, þænne (“then, at that time”), from Proto-West Germanic *þan, from Proto-Germanic *þan (“at that (time), then”), from earlier *þam, from Proto-Indo-European *tóm, accusative masculine of *só (“demonstrative pronoun, that”).

Cognate with Dutch dan (“then”), German dann (“then”), Swedish då (“then”), Icelandic þá (“then”). Doublet of than.

then (not comparable)

  1. (temporal location) At that time.
    He was happy then.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
      In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […] , and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.
    • 2022 January 21, Jacopo Prisco, “Striking photographs show ‘America in Crisis’”, in CNN‎[1]:
      The country was shaken by the then-recent assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, which happened against the background of profound racial tensions, stark economic inequality and growing opposition to the Vietnam War.
  2. (temporal location) Soon afterward.
    He fixed it, then left.
    Turn left, then right, then right again, then keep going until you reach the service station.
    And then came an invitation to tonight's ball.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.
  3. (sequence) Next in order of place.
    There are three green ones, then a blue one.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
      Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, with something of the stately pose which Richter has given his Queen Louise on the stairway, and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.
    • 2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly‎[2], volume 189, number 6, page 30:
      Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.
  4. In addition; also; besides.
    • 1908, E Young, “White elephants” (chapter 17), in Peeps at Many Lands: Siam, London: Adam and Charles Black, page 75:
      Another legend says that now and again in the world's history a monarch appears who conquers and rules every nation under the sun. […] Then many of the Siamese believe that the animal is inhabited by the soul of some great man of the past […]
  5. (conjunctive) In that case.
    If it’s locked, then we’ll need the key.
    Is it 12 o’clock already? Then it’s time for me to leave.
    You don’t like potatoes? What do you want me to cook, then?
    • 1749, The Universal Magazine, volume 4, page 321:
      That happy minute would elate me, / End all my sorrow, grief, and cares; / Then do not frown, altho' you hate me, / But smile and dissipate my fears: […]
  6. (sequence) At the same time; on the other hand.
    That’s a nice shirt, but then, so is the other one.
    The forms inheritress and inheritrix are used only in literature, and then but rarely.
  7. (UK, dialect, affirmation) Used to contradict an assertion.
    • 2001, Eric Malpass, At the Height of the Moon‎[3], page 28:
      ‘She says Indian elephants are tidgy little things.’
      ‘They're not then.’ Emma was getting heated. ‘They're –’
      ‘Emma!’ said Jenny sharply. The child subsided.

at that time

soon afterward

next in order

in that case

at the same time; on the other hand

then (not comparable)

  1. Being so at that time.
    • 2011, Alessandra Lemma, Mary Target, Peter Fonagy, Brief Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy: A Clinician's Guide, page 124:
      He had met his then girlfriend when he had just started university. The relationship ended unhappily when the girlfriend complained that he never wanted to go out.
    • 2019 December 22, Annalee Newitz and Cyrus Farivar, “Nick Farmer knows dozens of languages, so he invented one for The Expanse”, in Ars Technica‎[4], archived from the original on 25 February 2021:
      It all started when Nick Farmer bought George R. R. Martin a drink, but the plot really thickened when the linguist met Martin’s then-assistant Ty Franck.
    • 2022 May 8, Katie Lobosco, “Trump’s trade war looms over soybean farmers 4 years later”, in CNN‎[5], archived from the original on 22 November 2024:
      It’s been nearly four years since China put tariffs on American-grown soybeans during a tit-for-tat trade war with then-President Donald Trump – and they remain in place despite the change in administrations.
    • 2024 October 2, Brian Stelter, “43 million watched Walz-Vance VP debate, in significant drop from 2020 matchup”, in CNN Business‎[6], archived from the original on 18 February 2025:
      Four years ago, 57 million tuned in to the only vice presidential debate of the 2020 election cycle between Harris and then-Vice President Mike Pence.

being so at that time

then

  1. That time.
    It will be finished before then.

that time

Translations to be checked

then

  1. Obsolete spelling of than.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30, page 299:
      […] his hand, more ſad [i.e., heavy, hard] then lomp of lead, […]
    • 1595, Ouids Banquet of Sence. A Coronet for his Miſtreſſe Philoſophie, and his amorous Zodiacke. VVith a tranſlation of a Latine coppie, written by a Fryer, Anno Dom. 1400, London: I. R. for Richard Smith:
      And as a Pible caſt into a Spring, / Wee ſee a ſort of trembling cirkles riſe, / One forming other in theyr iſſuing / Till ouer all the Fount they circulize, / So this perpetuall-motion-making kiſſe, / Is propagate through all my faculties, / And makes my breaſt an endleſſe Fount of bliſſe, / Of which, if Gods could drink, theyr matchleſſe fare / Would make them much more bleſſed then they are.
    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [_i.e._, William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
      Clow[ne]. O they haue lyud long on the almſbaſket of wordes. I maruaile thy M.​hath not eaten thee for a worde, for thou art not ſo long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: Thou art eaſier ſwallowed then a flapdragon.
    • 1611, Joseph Hall, “Epistle VIII. To E.B. Dedicated to Sir George Goring.”, in Epistles […], volume III, London: […] [William Stansby and William Jaggard] for Samuell Macham, […], →OCLC, 5th decade, pages 95–96:
      To ſet the minde on the racke of long meditation (you ſay) is a torment: to follow the ſwift foote of your hound alday long, hath no wearineſſe: what would you ſay of him that finds better game in his ſtudie, then you in the fielde, and would account your diſport his puniſhment? ſuch there are, though you doubt and wonder.
  2. Misspelling of than.

then

  1. obsolete spelling of den

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 栓 (SV: thuyên). The obsolete form thoen is attested in some texts.

(classifier cái) then • (杄, 扦, 栓)

  1. bar, peg (used for locking a door)
  2. latch

then

  1. maggot