Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Jump To:

til

1 American  
[til, teel] / tɪl, til /
Also teel

noun

  1. the sesame plant.


'til 2 American  
[til] / tɪl /

preposition

  1. until; till.


TIL 3 American  
Or til

abbreviation

  1. today I learned.


til British  
/ tiːl, tɪl /

noun

  1. another name for sesame, esp a variety grown in India

"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

Commonly Confused

See till 1.

Etymology

Origin of til1

Borrowed into English from Hindi around 1830–40

Origin of 'til2

Aphetic variant of until

Origin of TIL3

From its use in digital communications


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.

See Examples For:

“As her head of security for more than two decades, a role my father Larry held before me, I have imagined the heaviness of this moment but haven’t truly felt it til now.”

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026

My dad is like, “I’ve never done any of this and I’m living til 80.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026

Instead of waiting til December, it updates weekly throughout the year, and creates a running playlist of your favourite songs and artists.

From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2025

Let’s fake it til you become it, you know?

From Salon ● May 20, 2024

“I live right close. Wait til I get my papers and lock the door, and I’ll take you home and fix it.”

From "Sounder" by William H. Armstrong

“I couldn’t have known how these lessons would resonate in my own life ’til my late 30s, my late 20s, when my wife handed me a role that I was looking for.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

“And now every child in D.C. from the time they’re born ’til they’re 5 years old gets a free book delivered.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

And for the first time in a while, I slept ’til morning.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 29, 2026

And then, at five ’til 6, there was only one tent left.

From Slate ● Mar. 25, 2026

“You’m gennelbeast bide by ’ere ’til us back.”

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques

"By adding a drug that inhibits PGE2 production to the TIL culture medium we restored the ability of TILs to respond to IL-2 and improved the expansion of tumor-reactive TILs more than two-fold," said Grimm.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024

And yes, TIL is actually included in the guide, but so are thousands of other abbreviations that I’m convinced someone just made up.

From The Verge ● Apr. 18, 2022

As Adams tweeted to Keller soon after the article appeared, “The main thing is that I am alive. Do not write me off and make statements about how my life ends TIL IT DOES, SIR.”

From Slate ● Jan. 14, 2014

Still, Sumit Mazumder, chairman of TIL Limited, a heavy equipment manufacturer, said he is more optimistic about West Bengal’s prospects.

From New York Times ● Sep. 18, 2012

To keep the TIL cells vigorous and growing, the NCI team had to inject the mice with additional IL-2, but only about a tenth as much as in the LAK treatments.

From Time Magazine Archive

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Look it up. Learn it forever.

Remember new words for good with VocabTrainer. Expand your vocabulary effortlessly with personalized learning tools that adapt to your goals.

Take me to Vocabulary.com