See way back when in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "adverb"
},
"expansion": "way back when",
"name": "head"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adv",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "50 50",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "50 50",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "50 50",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "50 50",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Past",
"orig": "en:Past",
"parents": [
"Time",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2005 July 8, Caryn James, “Critic's Notebook: When the Film Outshines The Novel”, in New York Times, retrieved 2018-03-02:",
"text": "The book's enduring power is also evident in its big-headed tripods from outer space, described perfectly by Wells way back when.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"At a time in the distant past."
],
"id": "en-way_back_when-en-adv-qpXmGS2I",
"links": [
[
"time",
"time"
],
[
"past",
"past"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) At a time in the distant past."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-way back when.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a5/En-au-way_back_when.ogg/En-au-way_back_when.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/En-au-way_back_when.ogg"
}
],
"word": "way back when"
}
{
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "adjective"
},
"expansion": "way back when",
"name": "head"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "50 50",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "50 50",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "50 50",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "50 50",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Past",
"orig": "en:Past",
"parents": [
"Time",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2017 May 15, Andrew Ross Sorkin, “20 Years On, Amazon and Jeff Bezos Prove Naysayers Wrong”, in New York Times, retrieved 2018-03-02:",
"text": "Even Warren Buffett was skeptical of Amazon way back when.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"At a time in the distant past."
],
"id": "en-way_back_when-en-adj-qpXmGS2I",
"links": [
[
"time",
"time"
],
[
"past",
"past"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) At a time in the distant past."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-way back when.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a5/En-au-way_back_when.ogg/En-au-way_back_when.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/En-au-way_back_when.ogg"
}
],
"word": "way back when"
}
{
"categories": [
"English adjectives",
"English adverbs",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"en:Past"
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "adverb"
},
"expansion": "way back when",
"name": "head"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adv",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2005 July 8, Caryn James, “Critic's Notebook: When the Film Outshines The Novel”, in New York Times, retrieved 2018-03-02:",
"text": "The book's enduring power is also evident in its big-headed tripods from outer space, described perfectly by Wells way back when.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"At a time in the distant past."
],
"links": [
[
"time",
"time"
],
[
"past",
"past"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) At a time in the distant past."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-way back when.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a5/En-au-way_back_when.ogg/En-au-way_back_when.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/En-au-way_back_when.ogg"
}
],
"word": "way back when"
}
{
"categories": [
"English adjectives",
"English adverbs",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"en:Past"
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "adjective"
},
"expansion": "way back when",
"name": "head"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2017 May 15, Andrew Ross Sorkin, “20 Years On, Amazon and Jeff Bezos Prove Naysayers Wrong”, in New York Times, retrieved 2018-03-02:",
"text": "Even Warren Buffett was skeptical of Amazon way back when.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"At a time in the distant past."
],
"links": [
[
"time",
"time"
],
[
"past",
"past"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) At a time in the distant past."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-way back when.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a5/En-au-way_back_when.ogg/En-au-way_back_when.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/En-au-way_back_when.ogg"
}
],
"word": "way back when"
}
Download raw JSONL data for way back when meaning in English (2.3kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (eaedd02 and 8fbd9e8). 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.