See while in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "while",
"raw_tags": [
"Preposition"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
"name": "preposition"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "prep",
"senses": [
{
"examples": [
{
"text": "He fell asleep while sitting at his desk."
}
],
"glosses": [
"If x happens while y happens, they happen at the same time."
],
"id": "simple-while-en-prep-LLwk1b9q"
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ʍaɪl/",
"tags": [
"UK"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/WaIl/",
"tags": [
"UK"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/waɪl/",
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/waIl/",
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-while.ogg",
"raw_tags": [
"Audio"
],
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"homophones": [
"wile"
]
}
],
"word": "while"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "while",
"tags": [
"singular"
]
},
{
"form": "–",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
"name": "noun4"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"examples": [
{
"text": "After a while I will stop working and cook food for us."
}
],
"glosses": [
"A while is a short time."
],
"id": "simple-while-en-noun-uU4984wW"
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ʍaɪl/",
"tags": [
"UK"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/WaIl/",
"tags": [
"UK"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/waɪl/",
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/waIl/",
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-while.ogg",
"raw_tags": [
"Audio"
],
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"homophones": [
"wile"
]
}
],
"tags": [
"singular-only"
],
"word": "while"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "while",
"tags": [
"canonical"
]
},
{
"form": "whiles",
"tags": [
"third-person",
"singular"
]
},
{
"form": "whiled",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "whiled",
"tags": [
"past",
"participle"
]
},
{
"form": "whiling",
"tags": [
"present",
"participle"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "whil",
"2": "e"
},
"expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
"name": "verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"examples": [
{
"text": "On Sundays, I like to while away the hours by reading."
}
],
"glosses": [
"If you while away the time, you spend it doing something not very productive."
],
"id": "simple-while-en-verb-jmaj70gi"
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ʍaɪl/",
"tags": [
"UK"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/WaIl/",
"tags": [
"UK"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/waɪl/",
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/waIl/",
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-while.ogg",
"raw_tags": [
"Audio"
],
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"homophones": [
"wile"
]
}
],
"word": "while"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "while",
"raw_tags": [
"Preposition"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
"name": "preposition"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "prep",
"senses": [
{
"examples": [
{
"text": "He fell asleep while sitting at his desk."
}
],
"glosses": [
"If x happens while y happens, they happen at the same time."
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ʍaɪl/",
"tags": [
"UK"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/WaIl/",
"tags": [
"UK"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/waɪl/",
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/waIl/",
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-while.ogg",
"raw_tags": [
"Audio"
],
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"homophones": [
"wile"
]
}
],
"word": "while"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "while",
"tags": [
"singular"
]
},
{
"form": "–",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
"name": "noun4"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"examples": [
{
"text": "After a while I will stop working and cook food for us."
}
],
"glosses": [
"A while is a short time."
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ʍaɪl/",
"tags": [
"UK"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/WaIl/",
"tags": [
"UK"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/waɪl/",
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/waIl/",
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-while.ogg",
"raw_tags": [
"Audio"
],
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"homophones": [
"wile"
]
}
],
"tags": [
"singular-only"
],
"word": "while"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "while",
"tags": [
"canonical"
]
},
{
"form": "whiles",
"tags": [
"third-person",
"singular"
]
},
{
"form": "whiled",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "whiled",
"tags": [
"past",
"participle"
]
},
{
"form": "whiling",
"tags": [
"present",
"participle"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "whil",
"2": "e"
},
"expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
"name": "verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"examples": [
{
"text": "On Sundays, I like to while away the hours by reading."
}
],
"glosses": [
"If you while away the time, you spend it doing something not very productive."
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ʍaɪl/",
"tags": [
"UK"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/WaIl/",
"tags": [
"UK"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/waɪl/",
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/waIl/",
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-while.ogg",
"raw_tags": [
"Audio"
],
"tags": [
"US"
]
},
{
"homophones": [
"wile"
]
}
],
"word": "while"
}
Download raw JSONL data for while meaning in English (2.1kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-12 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (1c4b89b and 9dbd323). 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.