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# awhile

«awhile» in Mova's school dictionary: **for a short time: wait awhile** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adverb (also spelt «a while»)

### meaning for a pupil

Awhile means for a short time: wait awhile. After a word like «after» or «for», we write «a while» as two words. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/awhile/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

in stories a character pauses or rests for a short time before the next action.

### examples

- After awhile he begins to totter. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/awhile/#x1)
- The priest reflected awhile; then he replied. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/awhile/#x2)
- After talking awhile, they lay down to sleep. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/awhile/#x3)

### note

nothing for maths; it names a short time, not an amount of things.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «awhile» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/awhile/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.