Synonyms

awhile

American

[uh-hwahyl, uh-wahyl] / əˈʰwaɪl, əˈwaɪl /

adverb

for a short time or period.

Stay awhile.

awhile British

/ əˈwaɪl /

adverb

for a brief period

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Spelling

The adverb awhile is spelled as a single word: After stopping in Hadley awhile, we drove to Deerfield. As the object of a preposition, the noun phrase a while is used, especially in edited writing, but the single-word form is becoming increasingly common: We rested for a while (or awhile ).

Etymology

Origin of awhile

before 1000; Middle English; Old English āne hwīle (dative); a ¹, while

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Even if the war ends soon, it could take awhile to restore some energy supply.

From Barron's

He took awhile to get up but remained in the game for just over a minute before leaving for good at the 6:40 mark.

From Los Angeles Times

We borrowed many initially because we did not have dogs and they came and went, ran for us awhile, then belonged to someone else.

From Literature

California does take awhile to count its ballots and finalize its elections.

From Los Angeles Times

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