then
/ðɛn/adverb, adjective, noun
then is spelled T-H-E-N. The wrong spelling people search most is thn: about 340 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Then is an adverb meaning “At that time”.
How many letters and syllables are in then?
| Letters | 4: T-H-E-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1,175 times per million words; the 93rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 4; the most searched, thn, about 340 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell then?
Then is spelled T-H-E-N. 4 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for then in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is then?
Then appears 1,175 times per million words in written English, the 93rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce then?
- US /ðɛn/
- US /ðɪn/
- Australia /ðen/
Then has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-then.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with then
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: than.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with then?
11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as then from its last stressed vowel (/ɛn/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: hent.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of then
- den
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does then mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
At that time.
He was happy then.
- 2
Soon afterward.
He fixed it, then left.
- 3
Next in order of place.
There are three green ones, then a blue one.
- 4
In addition; also; besides.
- 5
In that case.
If it’s locked, then we’ll need the key.
- 6
At the same time; on the other hand.
That’s a nice shirt, but then, so is the other one.
- 7
UKUsed to contradict an assertion.
adjective
- 1
Being so at that time.
noun
- 1
That time.
It will be finished before then.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Then in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | alors, à cette époque-là , puis, ensuite , d'alors |
| German | dann, damals , danach, anschließend , damalig |
| Portuguese | então, naquele tempo, naquela época, entonces , depois |
| Spanish | entonces, en eso , después, luego, a continuación, de ahí/allí |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does then come from?
From Middle English then(ne), than(ne), from Old English þonne, þanne, þænne (“then, at that time”), from Proto-West Germanic *þan, from Proto-Germanic *þan (“at that (time), then”), from earlier *þam, from Proto-Indo-European *tóm, accusative masculine of *só (“demonstrative pronoun, that”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).