early
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: ûr′lē
ipa: /ˈɜːli/
enpr: ûr′lē
ipa: /ˈɜɹli/
homophone: Earley
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)li
Forms: form: earlier
form: earliest
Etymology: From Middle English erly, erlich, earlich, from Old English ǣrlīċ (“early”, adjective), equivalent to ere + -ly.
Senses: examples: text: at eleven, we went for an early lunch; she began reading at an early age; his mother suffered an early death
text: Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
ref: 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:
glosses: At a time in advance of the usual or expected event.
examples: text: You're early today! I don't usually see you before nine o'clock.
text: The early guests sipped their punch and avoided each other's eyes.
glosses: Arriving a time before expected; sooner than on time.
examples: text: The play "Two Gentlemen of Verona" is one of Shakespeare's early works.
text: Early results showed their winning 245 out of 300 seats in parliament. The main opponent locked up only 31 seats.
text: 'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: Dotcom mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip. Since the launch early last year of Udacity and Coursera, two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations.
ref: 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
text: It’s one of the earliest pieces in the comprehensive collection of metronomes by the British instrument dealer Tony Bingham, which forms the bulk of the Basel exhibition.
ref: 2017 June 30, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, “Ticktock as Taskmaster: A Show About Metronomes and Musical Time”, in The New York Times:
glosses: After but close to the start of a period of time.
examples: text: It's too early for this sort of thing. I'm not awake yet.
glosses: In the starting hours of the day.
examples: text: early cancer
glosses: Having begun to occur; in its early stages.
topics: astronomy
natural-sciences
antonyms: late
glosses: Of a star or class of stars, hotter than the sun.
Synonyms: sense: at a time in advance of the usual
word: premature
sense: near but after the start
word: first
word: early
word: early doors
Hyponyms: word: initial
Derived terms: be a hundred years too early
call it an early night
earliness
early adopter
early and late
Early Assamese
early bath
early bells
early binding
early bird
early bird special
early blight
early bloomer
early-bound
early bright
early childhood
early childhood education
early closing
earlycomer
early crow
early day motion
early days
early door
early doors
early fetal demise
early grave
early Helladic
early innings
earlyish
Early Latin
early lifer
early mark
early modern
Early Modern Czech
early music
early night
early on
early position
Early Proto-Indo-European
early-purple orchid
early purple orchid
early queening
early reader
early retiree
early retirement
early retirement pensioner
early return
early riser
early saxifrage
early Showa
early Shōwa
early shower
early spider orchid
early spring orchis
early syphilis
early time
early-to-bedder
early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise
early-to-mid
Early Tripuri
early-type star
early vote
early voter
early voting
early-warning
early warning radar
early warning system
early winter cress
early withdrawal
earlywood
European early modern human
an early age
get up early
like turkeys voting for an early Christmas
nice and early
nonearly
pseudoearly
small and early
the early bird catches the worm
the early bird gets the worm
twirly
ultraearly
Related terms: word: premature