Definitions for earlier
ear·li·er

Princeton's WordNet(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. earlier, earliest(adverb)

   (comparative and superlative of `early') more early than; most early

   "a fashion popular in earlier times"; "his earlier work reflects the influence of his teacher"; "Verdi's earliest and most raucous opera"

2. earlier, before(adverb)

   earlier in time; previously

   "I had known her before"; "as I said before"; "he called me the day before but your call had come even earlier"; "her parents had died four years earlier"; "I mentioned that problem earlier"

3. sooner, earlier(adverb)

   comparatives of `soon' or `early'

   "Come a little sooner, if you can"; "came earlier than I expected"

4. in the first place, earlier, in the beginning, to begin with, originally(adverb)

   before now

   "why didn't you tell me in the first place?"

Wiktionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. earlier(Adverb)

   previously; before now; sooner

   I shall be late because I didn't start earlier.

2. earlier(Adjective)

   occurring previously

   I shall be late because I missed the earlier train.

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'earlier' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #1091

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'earlier' in Written Corpus Frequency: #948

3. Adverbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'earlier' in Adverbs Frequency: #103

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of earlier in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of earlier in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of earlier in a Sentence

1. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius:

   Maybe a little earlier.

2. Margaret Chan:

   We ought to have reacted far earlier.

3. Nelveta Skyers:

   If I came earlier I would be gone already.

4. Grace Huang:

   They could have done a lot more a lot earlier.

5. Sarah Friend:

   I keep wondering, could we have found this earlier?

Images & Illustrations of earlier

Popularity rank by frequency of use