Since Meaning
/sɪn(t)s/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
advFrom a specified time in the past.
prepFrom: referring to a period of time ending in the present and defining it by the point in time at which it started, or the period in which its starting point occurred., Continuously during that period of time.
Sentence Examples
I don't know how to demonstrate it, since it's too obvious!
It has been so long since I last went to Disneyland with my family.
Cath hasn't phoned since she went to Berlin.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The team was delayed ____ the train was late, so we missed the meeting.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I haven't seen my childhood friend ____ we graduated from high school.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English syns, synnes, contraction of earlier sithens, sithence, from sithen (“after, since”) ( + -s, adverbial genitive suffix), from Old English sīþþan, from the phrase sīþ þǣm (“after/since that (time)”), from sīþ (“since, after”) + þǣm dative singular of þæt. Cognate with Dutch sinds (“since”), German seit (“since”), Danish siden (“since”), Icelandic síðan (“since”) Scots syne (“since”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia."
— 2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:
"Since the 1980s, computers have had increasing roles in all aspects of human life—including an involvement in criminal acts."
— 2013 September-October, Simson Garfinkel, “Digital Forensics”, in American Scientist:
""Mujtahidd" has attracted almost 300,000 followers since the end of last year, when he began posting scandalous claims about the Saudi elite."
— 2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian:
"He had one hand on the bounce bottle—and he'd never let go of that since he got back to the table—but he had a handkerchief in the other and was swabbing his deadlights with it."
— 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
"The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen.[…]The second note, the high alarum, not so familiar and always important since it indicates the paramount sin in Man's private calendar, took most of them by surprise although they had been well prepared."
— 1963, Margery Allingham, “Eye Witness”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 249:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The team was delayed ____ the train was late, so we missed the meeting.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I haven't seen my childhood friend ____ we graduated from high school.