Till or until?
till is a preposition meaning “Until; to, up to; as late as (a given time)”; until is a preposition meaning “Up to the time of (something happening); pending”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) until is about 6.6 times as common as till.
What is the difference between till and until?
| till | until | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | preposition, conjunction, noun, verb | preposition, conjunction |
| Meaning | Until; to, up to; as late as (a given time) Before (a certain time or event) Until, until the time that | Up to the time of (something happening); pending Up to (a certain place) Up to the time that (a condition becomes true) |
| Example | She stayed till the very end | If you can wait until after my meeting with her, we'll talk then |
| Forms | tills, tilling, tilled | none |
| Pronunciation | /tɪl/ | /ʌnˈtɪl/ /ənˈtɪl/ /ʊnˈtɪl/ |
| In writing | 62 times per million words | 407 times per million words |
Sources: till and until in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of till and until
till
- 1
Until; to, up to; as late as (a given time)
She stayed till the very end
- 2
Until, until the time that
Maybe you can, maybe you can't: you won't know till you try
- 3
UKA cash register
- 4
To develop so as to improve or prepare for usage; to cultivate (said of knowledge, virtue, mind etc.)
- 5
glacial drift consisting of a mixture of clay, sand, pebbles and boulders
- 6
A vetch; a tare
- 7
Before (a certain time or event)
It's twenty till two. (1:40)
- 8
A removable box within a cash register containing the money
Pull all the tills and lock them in the safe
until
- 1
Up to the time of (something happening); pending
If you can wait until after my meeting with her, we'll talk then
- 2
Up to the time that (a condition becomes true)
Not until I got his email did I fully understand his disappointment
- 3
Up to (a certain place)
Keep walking until the second set of traffic lights, then turn left
- 4
Before (a condition becoming true)
- 5
Before (a time)
- 6
Up to the time that the foods or other things available to sell, or tasks which need to be completed, run out
Bake sale on Saturday, 2pm until
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, till or until?
till appears 62 times per million words; until 407 times per million words.
till 62 times per million wordsuntil 407 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search till vs until?
“till vs until” is searched about 50 times a month on Bing (Google reports it together with close variants, so it has no figure of its own) in the United States.
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.