then

Etymology

From Middle English then(ne), than(ne), from Old English þonne, þanne, þænne (“then, at that time”), from Proto-Germanic *þan (“at that (time), then”), from earlier *þam, from Proto-Indo-European *tóm, accusative masculine of *só (“demonstrative pronoun, that”). Cognate with Dutch dan (“then”), German dann (“then”), Icelandic þá (“then”). Doublet of than.

adv

1. (temporal location) At that time.
   He was happy then.
2. (temporal location) Soon afterward.
   He fixed it, then left.
   Turn left, then right, then right again, then keep going until you reach the service station.
   Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
3. (sequence) Next in order of place.
   There are three green ones, then a blue one.
   Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting. 2013-07-19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30
4. In addition; also; besides.
   Another legend says that now and again in the world's history a monarch appears who conquers and rules every nation under the sun. […] Then many of the Siamese believe that the animal is inhabited by the soul of some great man of the past […] 1908, E Young, “Chapter 17 White elephants”, in Peeps at Many Lands: Siam, London: Adam and Charles Black, page 75
5. (conjunctive) In that case.
   If it’s locked, then we’ll need the key.
   Is it 12 o'clock already? Then it's time for me to leave.
   You don't like potatoes? What do you want me to cook, then?
   And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before The Tavern shouted — "Open then the Door! You know how little while we have to stay, And, once departed, may return no more." 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 1
   That happy minute would elate me, / End all my sorrow, grief, and cares; / Then do not frown, altho' you hate me, / But smile and dissipate my fears: […] 1749, The Universal Magazine, volume 4, page 321
6. (sequence) At the same time; on the other hand.
   That’s a nice shirt, but then, so is the other one.
7. (UK, dialect, affirmation) Used to contradict an assertion.
   ‘She says Indian elephants are tidgy little things.’ ‘They're not then.’ Emma was getting heated. ‘They're –’ ‘Emma!’ said Jenny sharply. The child subsided. 2001, Eric Malpass, At the Height of the Moon, page 28

adj

1. Being so at that time.
   He had met his then girlfriend when he had just started university. The relationship ended unhappily when the girlfriend complained that he never wanted to go out. 2011, Alessandra Lemma, Mary Target, Peter Fonagy, Brief Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy: A Clinician's Guide, page 124

noun

1. That time
   It will be finished before then.

conj

1. Obsolete spelling of than
   And as a Pible caſt into a Spring, / Wee ſee a ſort of trembling cirkles riſe, / One forming other in theyr iſſuing / Till ouer all the Fount they circulize, / So this perpetuall-motion-making kiſſe, / Is propagate through all my faculties, / And makes my breaſt an endleſſe Fount of bliſſe, / Of which, if Gods could drink, theyr matchleſſe fare / Would make them much more bleſſed then they are. 1595, Ouids Banquet of Sence. A Coronet for his Miſtreſſe Philoſophie, and his amorous Zodiacke. VVith a tranſlation of a Latine coppie, written by a Fryer, Anno Dom. 1400, London: I. R. for Richard Smith
2. Misspelling of than.