View synonyms for

until

[ uhn-til ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

conjunction

up to the time that or when; till:
He read until his guests arrived.
before (usually used in negative constructions):
They did not come until the meeting was half over.

preposition

onward to or till (a specified time or occurrence):
She worked until 6 p.m.
before (usually used in negative constructions):
He did not go until night.
Scot. and North England. to; unto.

until

/ ʌ��ˈ��ɪ�� /

conjunction

up to (a time) that
he laughed until he cried
used with a negative before (a time or event)
until you change, you can't go out

preposition

often preceded by up in or throughout the period before
he waited until six
used with a negative earlier than; before
he won't come until tomorrow

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Usage

The use of until such time as (as in industrial action will continue until such time as our demands are met ) is unnecessary and should be avoided: industrial action will continue until our demands are met

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Confusables Note

See till ¹.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of until¹

First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English untill, from un- (from Old Norse unz “up to, as far as”) + till till ¹

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Word History and Origins

Origin of until¹

C13 untill; related to Old High German unt unto, until, Old Norse und; see till ¹

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Idioms and Phrases

see put off until tomorrow ; talk one's arm off (until blue in the face) . Also see under till .

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

��’s done is done, and the season autopsy can wait until the summer.

From

That included a 10% across-the-board tariff on imports from every country, and even higher rates for dozens of countries, until they were temporarily suspended in early April.

From

Until they got some of those subsidies, they could not afford coverage.

From

He envisioned local people being trained up in doing essentially the first 90 yards of 100 yard sprint in order to maximize the time of the specialists, the PhD biodiversity researchers, who, up until this point, had been tasked with doing the entire 100 yards themselves, but really their expertise and time and resources were best applied to answering the questions that only they could answer.

From

For their part, though, the Chinese say that this is completely false and that they won’t be speaking to the U.S. at all until Trump unilaterally revokes all of the comically large tariffs he imposed a few weeks ago.

From

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

untie untimely

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