early

English

Etymology

From Middle English erly, erli, Old English ǣrlīce, from ǣr (“before”) + adverbial suffix -līce. Cognate with Old Norse árla ( > Danish and Norwegian årle, Swedish arla)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈɜː(ɹ).li/, SAMPA: /"3:(r).li/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)li
• (GenAm) IPA: /ˈɝli/. SAMPA: /"3`li/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ear‧ly

Adjective

early (comparative earlier, superlative earliest)

1. At a time in advance of the usual or expected event.

   At eleven, we went for an early lunch.

   She began reading at an early age.

   His mother suffered an early death.

2. Arriving a time before expected; sooner than on-time.

   You're early today! I don't usually see you before nine o'clock.

   The early guests sipped their punch and avoided each other's eyes.

3. Near the start or beginning.

   The play "Two Gentlemen of Verona" is one of Shakespeare's early works.

   Early results showed their winning 245 out of 300 seats in parliament. The main opponent locked up only 31 seats.

Synonyms

• (at a time in advance of the usual): premature
• (near the start): first

Antonyms

• late

Derived terms

Derived terms

earliness early bath early bird/the early bird catches the worm early doors early grave early innings earlyish Early Latin early modern early music

early on early purple orchid early retirement early spider orchid early syphilis early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise early warning radar early winter cress early withdrawal nice and early

Translations

at a time in advance of the usual

Albanian: please add this translation if you can Arabic: باكر (ar) (baakir) Egyptian Arabic: بدري (badri) Armenian: please add this translation if you can Bulgarian: ранен (bg) Burmese: စော (my) (saw:) Catalan: d'hora (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 早 (cmn) (zǎo) Czech: raný (cs), časný (cs) Dutch: vroeg (nl) Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Estonian: varajane (et) Finnish: varhainen (fi), aikainen (fi) French: précoce (fr) c. sg., primitif (fr) m. sg., primitive (fr) f. sg. Georgian: ადრეული (ka) (adreuli) German: früh (de), verfrüht (de) Greek: please add this translation if you can Hebrew: please add this translation if you can Hindi: please add this translation if you can Hungarian: korai (hu) Irish: luath (ga) Italian: please add this translation if you can Japanese: 早い (ja) (はやい, hayai)

Khmer: មុនម៉ោង (km) (mun maong) Korean: 이르다 (ko) (ireuda), 빠르다 (ko) (ppareuda) Kurdish: زوو (ku) (zu) Latin: matutinus (la) m., praecox (la) Latvian: agrs (lv) Lithuanian: ankstus (lt), ankstyvas (lt) Lojban: clira (jbo) Luxembourgish: fréi (lb) Maori: please add this translation if you can Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Persian: زود (fa) (zud) Polish: wczesny (pl) m. Portuguese: cedo (pt) Romanian: devreme (ro), timpuriu (ro) Russian: ранний (ru) (ránnij) Spanish: temprano (es) Swahili: mapema (sw) Swedish: tidig (sv) Thai: เนิ่นๆ (th) (nêrn nêrn), เนิ่น (th) (nêrn) Turkish: erken (tr) Vietnamese: sớm (vi), ban đầu (vi), đầu mùa (vi) Welsh: yn fore (cy), cynnar (cy) West Frisian: ier (fy) Yiddish: באלדיק (yi) (baldik)

arriving at a time before expected

Bulgarian: ранен (bg), преждевременен (bg) Dutch: vroeg (nl) Estonian: vara (et) Finnish: aikainen (fi), ennenaikainen (fi) French: en avance German: früh (de), verfrüht (de) Greek: νωρίς (el) (no'ris) Irish: luath (ga) Italian: precoce (it)

Korean: 이르다 (ireuda), 빠르다 (ppareuda) Kurdish: زوو (ku) (zu) Polish: wczesny (pl) m. Russian: ранний (ru) (ránnij) Spanish: prematuro (es), temprano (es) Swahili: mapema (sw) Swedish: tidig (sv) Turkish: erken (tr)

near the start or beginning

Finnish: varhainen (fi) French: ancien (fr) m. sg., ancienne (fr) f. sg. German: früh (de) Italian: primo (it) Korean: 이르다 (ireuda), 빠르다 (ppareuda) Lojban: clira (jbo) Polish: wczesny m., początkowy m.

Romanian: devreme (ro) Russian: ранний (ru) (ránnij) Spanish: primero (es) Swahili: mapema (sw) Swedish: tidig (sv) Turkish: erken (tr)

Adverb

early (comparative earlier, superlative earliest)

1. At a time before expected; sooner than usual.

   We finished the project an hour sooner than scheduled, so we left early.

Synonyms

• prematurely

Antonyms

• late, tardily

Translations

at a time before expected

Arabic: مُبَكِّرًا (ar) (mubakkiran) Egyptian Arabic: بدري (badri) Basque: goizik Breton: abred Bulgarian: рано (bg) Chamicuro: wa'ni tsijta Chinese: Mandarin: 早 (cmn) (zǎo) Czech: brzy (cs) Esperanto: frue (eo) Estonian: vara (et) Finnish: aikaisin, varhain, ajoissa, hyvissä ajoin French: tôt (fr), de bonne heure (fr), en avance German: früh (de) Greek: νωρίς (el) (noris) Hindi: जल्दी (hi) (jaldī) Hittite: karú Hungarian: korán (hu) Icelandic: snemma (is) Ido: frue Italian: presto (it)

Japanese: 早く (ja) (はやく, hayaku) Korean: 일찍 (ko) (iljjik), 빨리 (ko) (ppalli) Latvian: agri (lv) Lithuanian: anksti (lt) Luxembourgish: fréi (lb) Persian: زود (fa) (zud) Polish: wcześnie (pl) Portuguese: cedo (pt) Romanian: devreme (ro) Russian: рано (ru) (ráno) Serbian: rano (comparative ranije, superlative najranije) Sicilian: viatu Slovak: skorý Slovene: zgodaj (sl) Spanish: temprano (es) Swahili: mapema (sw) Swedish: tidigt (sv) Turkish: erken (tr) Urdu: جلدی (ur) (jaldī) Welsh: cynnar, plygeinwaith (cy) Yiddish: פֿרי (yi) (fri)

Noun

early (plural earlies)

1. A shift (scheduled work period) that takes place early in the day.
   • 2007, Paul W. Browning, The Good Guys Wear Blue (page 193)

     On my first day on the watch after leaving the shoplifting squad I paraded on earlies but had completely forgotten to take my ear ring off.

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: arms · across · answer · #447: early · saying · talk · spirit

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