until

un·tilUK /ʌnˈtɪl/preposition, conjunction

until is spelled U-N-T-I-L, 2 syllables: un·til. The wrong spelling people search most is untill: about 280 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Until is a preposition meaning “Up to the time of (something happening); pending”.

How many letters and syllables are in until?

Letters	5: U-N-T-I-L
Syllables	2: un·til
In writing	407 times per million words; the 220th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	2; the most searched, untill, about 280 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Pairs people search	till vs until

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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).

How do you spell until?

Until is spelled U-N-T-I-L. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for until in either form.

untilthe right spelling1,390 searches a month

untillan extra l280 searches a month

unitlt and i swapped70 searches a month

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 until?

Until appears 407 times per million words in written English, the 220th most frequent word form in the list.

until0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce until?

UK /ʌnˈtɪl/
UK /ənˈtɪl/
UK /ʊnˈtɪl/

Until has 2 syllables, split un·til in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-until.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with until

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

till vs until50 B

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What does until mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

preposition

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 (a certain place)
Keep walking until the second set of traffic lights, then turn left.
3
Before (a time).
4
obsoleteTo; physically towards.
5
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.

conjunction

1
Up to the time that (a condition becomes true).
Not until I got his email did I fully understand his disappointment.
2
Before (a condition becoming true).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Until in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

Language	Words
French	jusque, jusqu'à (up to the time of), avant, avant que (before), jusqu'à ce que, jusqu'au moment où (up to the time that)
German	bis, bis zu, bis an (up to the time of)
Portuguese	até, até que (up to the time of)
Spanish	hasta (up to the time of), antes (before), hasta que (up to the time that)

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 until come from?

From Middle English vntil, until, untill, ontil, ontill, perhaps representing a northern variant of Middle English unto (see Modern English unto). By surface analysis, un- (“against; toward; up to”) + till.