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Then

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then¹

  • /ðɛn/ US, UK
  • /ðɪn/ US, pin pen merger
  • /ðen/ Australia, New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɛn

Where it comes from

From Middle English then(ne), than(ne), from Old English þonne, þanne, þænne (“then, at that time”), from Proto-West Germanic *þan, from Proto-Germanic *þan (“at that (time), then”), from earlier *þam, from Proto-Indo-European *tóm, accusative masculine of *só (“demonstrative pronoun, that”).

Cognate with Dutch dan (“then”), German dann (“then”), Swedish då (“then”), Icelandic þá (“then”). Doublet of than.

adverb den

  1. not comparable At that time. He was happy then.
  2. not comparable Soon afterward. He fixed it, then left.
  3. not comparable, sequence Next in order of place. There are three green ones, then a blue one.
  4. not comparable In addition; also; besides. Another legend says that now and again in the world's history a monarch appears who conquers and rules every nation under the sun. […] Then many of the Siamese believe that the animal is inhabited by the soul of some great man of the past […]
  5. conjunctive, not comparable In that case. If it’s locked, then we’ll need the key.
  6. not comparable, sequence At the same time; on the other hand. That’s a nice shirt, but then, so is the other one.
  7. UK, dialectal, not comparable Used to contradict an assertion. ‘She says Indian elephants are tidgy little things.’ ‘They're not then.’ Emma was getting heated. ‘They're –’ ‘Emma!’ said Jenny sharply. The child subsided.

Similar: and then, followed by, as a result, therewhile, ensuingly, followingly, hereafter, syne, then

adjective den

  1. attributive, not comparable Being so at that time. He had met his then girlfriend when he had just started university. The relationship ended unhappily when the girlfriend complained that he never wanted to go out.

noun den

  1. That time. It will be finished before then.

conjunction den

  1. obsolete Obsolete spelling of than.than […]his hand, more ſad [i.e., heavy, hard] then lomp of lead,[…]
  2. misspelling Misspelling of than.than

Then²

Where it comes from

* As a south German surname, from the personal name Thön, a form of Anthony.

* Also as a German surname, a variant of Ten, occupational surname for a mintmaster, from obsolete Middle Low German ten, tene (“blank; disk from which a coin is made”), possibly related to Proto-Germanic *tainaz (“metal rod”), or perhaps otherwise from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).

* Also as a German name, from the noun Tenne (“threshing-floor”).

* As a Chinese surname, a Romanization of 鄧 /邓 (dèng) (see Deng) and 田 (tián) (see Tian).

proper noun Thens

  1. A surname.

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