in the distance

adverb

Far away; a long distance away.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

adverbin the distance (not comparable)
  1. not comparableFar away; a long distance away.

    After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance, and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming.

    1865 November (indicated as 1866), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “The Pool of Tears”, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 17
    2 more examples

    It was, by my watch, nearly an hour and a half from the time of our leaving the station before I heard the sound of the sea in the distance

    1860, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White

    While Hefzur was adjusting, conditions for the Rohingya in Myanmar, where his family was still living, were deteriorating. His parents described villages burning in the distance. They had to go, they informed him.

    2019 September 22, Miriam Jordan, “Refugee Cutbacks Could Isolate Rohingya Children in the U.S.”, in New York Times
Cite this entry
APA

in the distance. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20the%20distance

MLA

“in the distance.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20the%20distance. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “in the distance,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20the%20distance.

Source: in the distance on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.