: the time before something happens or before a specified period ends
The new computers won't arrive until next week, but we can continue to use the old ones in the meantime.
: meanwhile entry 2
meantime he had been attentive to his other interests—
H. R. Warfel
H. R. Warfel
: time that is based on the motion of the theoretical mean sun
To find local mean time, determine how many degrees of longitude you are from your time-zone standard. (Find your longitude on a map.) Multiply this number by four to get your correction in minutes. If you are east of the standard longitude your correction is a positive number; if you are west it is negative. Apply the correction to standard time to get your local mean time.—Sky & Telescope
Sky & Telescopecalled also mean solar time
Examples of meantime in a Sentence
Adverb
He can come back to work when he's feeling better. Meantime, he should be resting as much as possible.
Recent Examples on the Web
Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 16 Oct. 2025
The wedding ballads can wait; this nasty jam should still get the dancefloor packed in the meantime.
—Andrew Unterberger, Billboard, 3 Oct. 2025
Dane Brugler, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2025
Pro-Trump influencers, meantime, have egged Carr on.
—Brian Stelter, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2025
Brooke Baitinger, Sacbee.com, 12 Sep. 2025
Before implementing new incident response capabilities, establish baseline measurements for key performance indicators: mean time to detection, containment effectiveness, operational impact duration and recovery completeness.
—Dan Sorensen, Forbes.com, 27 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for meantime
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Noun
Hightower’s order means a trial that was set to start on Dec. 1 will now begin on May 4, 2026—unless the government and Leiweke work out a plea deal in the meantime.
—Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 16 Oct. 2025
The wedding ballads can wait; this nasty jam should still get the dancefloor packed in the meantime.
—Andrew Unterberger, Billboard, 3 Oct. 2025
Adverb
McDonald, meantime, can be an absolute house on wheels.
—Dane Brugler, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2025
Pro-Trump influencers, meantime, have egged Carr on.
—Brian Stelter, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2025
Noun
State health officials will add flu data to its respiratory virus dashboard during the fall flu season, and in the mean time the agency recommends everyone over 6 months of age should stay up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations to protect against severe illness and current variants.
—Brooke Baitinger, Sacbee.com, 12 Sep. 2025
Before implementing new incident response capabilities, establish baseline measurements for key performance indicators: mean time to detection, containment effectiveness, operational impact duration and recovery completeness.
—Dan Sorensen, Forbes.com, 27 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for meantime
Cite this Entry
“Meantime.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meantime. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
meantime
1 of 2 noun
mean·time
ˈmēn-ˌtīm 
: the time between two events
meantime
2 of 2 adverb
: in the meantime
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