Whiles

//(h)waɪlz// adv, conj, noun, verb

adv, conj, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    plural of while form-of, plural
Verb
  1. 1
    third-person singular simple present indicative of while form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person
Adverb
  1. 1
    sometimes; at times Scotland, archaic, not-comparable

    "Man, I've diverted myself whiles with the science of the stars, and can make a shape at calculating a nativity."

  2. 2
    meanwhile Scotland, archaic, not-comparable

    "the good knight whiles humming to himself the lay of some majored troubadour"

Conjunction
  1. 1
    while, whilst archaic, dialectal

    "Portia: […]Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the door."

Synonyms

All synonyms
whilst

Example

More examples

"Here is the paralysed woman of thirty-five who has for twenty years lain in bed the whiles her sister has worked incessantly to maintain her!"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From while (noun) + -s (adverbial suffix); compare whilst.

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Related phrases

at times

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.