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Is it ?

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/in+the+meanwhile

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/defini.../meanwhile

 

There are 4.17mio occurrences listed in google ... 

 

Well, you forgot to mention that "in the meantime" is 57 mio hits...

Also, http://dictionary.cambridge.org/spellche...+meanwhile  does not find it.

And the Dictionary app on my Mac does not find "in the meanwhile", although it is then listed under meanwhile without further explanation.

As to finding 4.7 mio hits, there is no regional breakdown. In uk you have only 54'000 hits for "in the meanwhile" against 3.1 mil hits for "in the meantime".

 

Meanwhile is usually an adverb,  perhaps that's why it doesn't ring well  "in the meanwhile"   . There does seem to be also

the noun of meanwhile, but not sure how frequent that is.

I suspect most uses of 'in the meanwhile" (like in the us) are "wrong" usage.