Sapling Logo

“A while” or “Awhile”

a while / awhile are similar-sounding terms with different meanings (referred to as homophones). To better understand the differences, see below for definitions, pronunciation guides, and example sentences using each term.

Get Sapling See examples
Definitions

What each term means

Same sound, different spellings and meanings, shown with a pronunciation guide for each term.

a while

No dictionary entry for this spelling — see the usage examples below for how it shows up in writing.

awhile ah·w·AY·l

  • adverbfor a short time.
Usage

Examples in context

Real sentences for each spelling. Hover an example to copy it.

“a while”

No example sentences found for this spelling.

“awhile”

  • …remain with their mother for awhile before roosting on their own.
  • Knud Lavard had also gained awhile parts of Holstein, and thereby…
  • …with [his] drawing style for awhile and wanted it to be…
  • …ballads, such as "Let's Wait Awhile" and "Again," calling on the…
  • …had not some followers for awhile, although none could keep them;…
  • …shift from Roma to Albanian awhile ago.

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license. Definitions are drawn from WordNet.

Too much to remember?

Looking for a tool that handles this for you wherever you write?

Install Sapling Try the grammar checker