Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

a while back

Idioms  

  1. Also, a while ago. Some time in the past, as in I ran into Barbara a while back but didn't get her new address, or John wrote me a while ago about his new baby. This term uses a while in the sense of “a short or moderate time,” a usage dating from about 1300.

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.

At a brunch at Kyoko’s apartment a while back, we cooked together, listened to music and made cocktails.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

“He’s an amazingly talented guy,” McDonald says of Puth, whom the Doobie Brothers frontman had been eager to write with since a mutual friend suggested it a while back.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026

“I remember one a while back that was a roller and those are scary because they keep going on, but this was a quick hit, was over and that’s it.”

From New York Times • Feb. 9, 2024

I ran into an old friend a while back, someone I hadn’t spoken to in a few years, and we got on the topic of anime.

From Salon • Dec. 23, 2023

"Only a little, sir. There was some talk about them up on the campus a while back."

From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison

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

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.