Meanwhile vs. meantime
Are they really the same? I've been using them interchangeably...
asked Jul 5, 2011 at 14:27
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1In the meantime, in between time ... ain't we got fun?– FattieCommented Jul 5, 2011 at 23:41
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all of the news reporters now just use "meantime" not "in the meantime"– elroyCommented Aug 28, 2017 at 23:17
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3 Answers
The dictionary will tell you that they are synonymous; I will tell you that "meanwhile" is more common than "meantime", unless you say "in the meantime".
I would use "meanwhile", but "in the meantime" is a close second, with "meantime" dead last, in my opinion. (As you can see, "meantime" used to be as popular as "in the meantime", but now, it occurs more than ten times less.)
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2Have you ever seen "meantime" used in such a sentence without the phrase "in the meantime"? Commented Jul 5, 2011 at 14:34
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hm, I don't think your construct 'but [expr]' is fair to the lone 'meantime'; compare this ngrams.googlelabs.com/… (for my red graph to be meaningful subtract the value of blue one from it) - I think it proves that it does influence the stats very much.– UnreasonCommented Jul 5, 2011 at 14:40
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@unreason. How's my edit? It makes sure that "Meantime" is not included in "In the meantime", and instead of adding a word, it makes sure the expression comes at the beginning of a sentence, where it is more fair.– DanielCommented Jul 5, 2011 at 14:44
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@drm65, +1that seems more comparable, but I would still note that ngrams.googlelabs.com/… shows higher frequency of meantime vs meanwhile overall; re usage see google.com/… - you might have to dig a bit, but there are nice examples– UnreasonCommented Jul 5, 2011 at 14:57
Dictionary.com indicates that both words can be used as either a noun or adverb, but I've only heard meanwhile used as an adverb and meantime used as a noun.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch John was saddling up his horse.
My plane doesn't leave for another two hours, in the meantime I'll grab a bite to eat and catch up on some reading.
I've no proof that other people do this, but I certainly use "meanwhile" to mean during the occurrence of some other event, but "meantime" to mean until the occurrence of some other event. So "Meanwhile, back at the ranch John was saddling up his horse" -- while you are doing whatever you're doing, John is saddling; but "My plane doesn't leave for another two hours, in the meantime I'll grab a bite to eat and catch up on some reading." -- in the time gap until the plane leaves, I'll have lunch.
answered Jul 5, 2011 at 17:05
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so you basically say that we use in the meantime when we have an endpoint, and meanwhile when we don't, do you?– OokerCommented Mar 7, 2015 at 17:41