awhile

[ uh-hwahyl, uh-wahyl ]
See synonyms for awhile on Thesaurus.com
adverb
  1. for a short time or period: Stay awhile.

Origin of awhile

1
before 1000; Middle English; Old English āne hwīle (dative); see a1, while

usage note For awhile

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 ).

Words Nearby awhile

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use awhile in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for awhile

awhile

/ (əˈwaɪl) /


adverb
  1. 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