until

CEFRA1

/ʌnˈtɪl/

preposition

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
preposition
Up to the time when something happens.
02
preposition
Extra detail
Before (a time).

Examples

Everything is theoretically impossible until it's done.
Class doesn't begin until eight-thirty.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 1
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Also pronounced

/ˈʌntəl/

Deep Dive

preposition

Extra meanings

Up to (a certain place)
Up to the time of (something happening); pending.
Up to the time that the foods or other things available to sell, or tasks which need to be completed, run out.

More examples

In context

Let's wait until the rain stops.
If you can wait until after my meeting with her, we'll talk then.
Keep walking until the second set of traffic lights, then turn left.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

She waited patiently blank her friend arrived, then they left together.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.
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
Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.
2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21
Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."
2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 30
It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street.[…]. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.
1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC, page 01
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.
2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30

Keep until

Looking a word up is the easy part. LexUp remembers which words you have met and brings them back at the point you were about to forget them.

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

Origin

preposition

From Middle English vntil, until, untill, ontil, ontill, perhaps representing a northern variant of Middle English unto (see Modern English unto). By surface analysis, un- (“against; toward; up to”) + till.

Deep Dive

preposition

More examples

Related

Quick test

She waited patiently blank— her friend arrived, then they left together.

Nearby

Origin

preposition

She waited patiently blank her friend arrived, then they left together.