Wiktionary

then

See also: Then

EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

  • den (AAVE, Bermuda)

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English then(ne), than(ne), from Old English þonne, þanne, þænne (“then, at that time”), 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”), Icelandic þá (“then”). Doublet of than.

PronunciationEdit

AdverbEdit

then (not comparable)

  1. (temporal location) At that time.
    He was happy then.
  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.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Matthew 5:24:
      First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      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 222716698:
      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, 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, Young, E, “Chapter 17 White elephants”, 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.
  7. (UK, dialect, affirmation) Used to contradict an assertion.
    • 2001, Eric Malpass, At the Height of the Moon‎[1], 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.

SynonymsEdit

TranslationsEdit

See alsoEdit

  • (next in order): if

AdjectiveEdit

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.

TranslationsEdit

NounEdit

then

  1. That time
    It will be finished before then.

TranslationsEdit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

ConjunctionEdit

then

  1. Obsolete spelling of than
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, 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 61366361; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], OCLC 1154977408, [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.
  2. Misspelling of than.

Derived termsEdit

ReferencesEdit

AnagramsEdit

SwedishEdit

PronounEdit

then

  1. Obsolete spelling of den

VietnameseEdit

EtymologyEdit

Probably a Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 栓 (SV: thuyên).

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

(classifier cái) then • (杄, 釺, 𣏿, 𣛩)

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

Derived termsEdit

Derived terms

ZouEdit

NounEdit

then

  1. maggot

ReferencesEdit

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