the vs then

the

adv
  • With a comparative or with more and a verb phrase, establishes a correlation with one or more other such comparatives. 

  • With a comparative, and often with for it, indicates a result more like said comparative. This can be negated with none. 

article
  • Introducing a singular term to be taken generically: preceding a name of something standing for a whole class. 

  • Used before an adjective, indicating all things (especially persons) described by that adjective. 

  • Used to indicate a certain example of (a noun) which is usually of most concern or most common or familiar. 

  • Added to a superlative or an ordinal number to make it into a substantive. 

  • Used before a body part (especially of someone previously mentioned), as an alternative to a possessive pronoun. 

  • When stressed, indicates that it describes an object which is considered to be best or exclusively worthy of attention. 

  • Definite grammatical article that implies necessarily that an entity it hints at is presupposed; something already mentioned, or completely specified later in that same sentence, or assumed already completely specified. 

  • Used before an object considered to be unique, or of which there is only one at a time. 

  • Used before a noun modified by a restrictive relative clause, indicating that the noun refers to a single referent defined by the relative clause. 

  • Used before a superlative or an ordinal number modifying a noun, to indicate that the noun refers to a single item. 

prep
  • For each; per. 

then

adv
  • At the same time; on the other hand. 

  • Next in order of place. 

  • At that time. 

  • In addition; also; besides. 

  • Used to contradict an assertion. 

  • In that case. 

  • Soon afterward. 

adj
  • Being so at that time. 

noun
  • That time 

How often have the words the and then occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )