for a while in English

[Show JSON for postprocessed kaikki.org data shown on this page ▼] [Hide JSON for postprocessed kaikki.org data shown on this page ▲]

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "phr"
      },
      "expansion": "for a while",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see for, a, while."
      ],
      "id": "en-for_a_while-en-phrase-81yjvM6I",
      "links": [
        [
          "for",
          "for#English"
        ],
        [
          "a",
          "a#English"
        ],
        [
          "while",
          "while#English"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "please wait for a while"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Philippine English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 93",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "6 94",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "5 95",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Ellipsis of please wait for a while."
      ],
      "id": "en-for_a_while-en-phrase-TwrF-Qc4",
      "links": [
        [
          "please",
          "please#English"
        ],
        [
          "wait",
          "wait#English"
        ],
        [
          "for",
          "for#English"
        ],
        [
          "a",
          "a#English"
        ],
        [
          "while",
          "while#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Philippines, formal) Ellipsis of please wait for a while."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Philippines",
        "abbreviation",
        "alt-of",
        "ellipsis",
        "formal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "for a while"
}

[Show JSON for raw wiktextract data ▼] [Hide JSON for raw wiktextract data ▲]

{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrases",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "phr"
      },
      "expansion": "for a while",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see for, a, while."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "for",
          "for#English"
        ],
        [
          "a",
          "a#English"
        ],
        [
          "while",
          "while#English"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "please wait for a while"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English ellipses",
        "English formal terms",
        "Philippine English"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Ellipsis of please wait for a while."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "please",
          "please#English"
        ],
        [
          "wait",
          "wait#English"
        ],
        [
          "for",
          "for#English"
        ],
        [
          "a",
          "a#English"
        ],
        [
          "while",
          "while#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Philippines, formal) Ellipsis of please wait for a while."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Philippines",
        "abbreviation",
        "alt-of",
        "ellipsis",
        "formal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "for a while"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-12-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-12-02 using wiktextract (ddb1505 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.

"for a while" meaning in English

Phrase