Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The intervening time.
  • adverb During or in the intervening time.
  • adverb At the same time.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as meantime.
  • noun Same as meantime: only in the phrase in the meanwhile: two words, written as one.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The time between two events
  • adverb During the time (that something is happening).
  • adverb At the same time, but elsewhere.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb at the same time but in another place
  • adverb during the intervening time
  • noun the time between one event, process, or period and another

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English. Adverb is by ellipsis from in the mean while, noun being conventionally written as one word after the adverb.

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