Until

How to spell until

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce until

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does until mean?

1. prepositionUp to the point in time or the event mentioned, and not after.

Until in a sentence

• The office stays open until six o'clock every weekday.

• She waited until the rain stopped before leaving the house.

Where does until come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Until comes to us from a blend of two old elements meaning much the same thing. The first part traces to the Old Norse prefix und, meaning 'as far as' or 'up to', while the second part, 'til', is the same word as the everyday 'till', which originally meant 'to' or 'up to a point'. The two were joined in northern Middle English around the thirteenth century to make a single emphatic word for a limit in time or place. Because the word effectively doubles up two near-synonyms, it confusingly keeps only a single 'l' at the end, unlike its cousin 'till', which keeps the double 'l'. That single-l spelling is the trap: writers who know 'till' often wrongly carry the second 'l' across into 'until'.

How the word is built

• un- (from Old Norse und: as far as, up to)
• til (till: to, up to)