Definitions for early
ˈɜr liear·ly

Princeton's WordNet(2.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. earlyadjective

   at or near the beginning of a period of time or course of events or before the usual or expected time

   "early morning"; "an early warning"; "early diagnosis"; "an early death"; "took early retirement"; "an early spring"; "early varieties of peas and tomatoes mature before most standard varieties"

2. earlyadjective

   being or occurring at an early stage of development

   "in an early stage"; "early forms of life"; "early man"; "an early computer"

3. early(a), former(a), other(a)adjective

   belonging to the distant past

   "the early inhabitants of Europe"; "former generations"; "in other times"

4. earlyadjective

   very young

   "at an early age"

5. earlyadjective

   of an early stage in the development of a language or literature

   "the Early Hebrew alphabetical script is that used mainly from the 11th to the 6th centuries B.C."; "Early Modern English is represented in documents printed from 1476 to 1700"

6. earlyadverb

   expected in the near future

   "look for an early end to the negotiations"

7. early on, earlyadverb

   during an early stage

   "early on in her career"

8. early, ahead of time, too soonadverb

   before the usual time or the time expected

   "she graduated early"; "the house was completed ahead of time"

9. early, betimesadverb

   in good time

   "he awoke betimes that morning"

Wiktionary(2.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. earlynoun

   A shift (scheduled work period) that takes place early in the day.

   Etymology: From erly, erli, ærlice, from ær + adverbial suffix -lice. Cognate with Old Norse árla ( > Danish and Norwegian årle, Swedish arla)

2. earlyadverb

   At a time before expected; sooner than usual.

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

   Etymology: From erly, erli, ærlice, from ær + adverbial suffix -lice. Cognate with Old Norse árla ( > Danish and Norwegian årle, Swedish arla)

3. earlyadjective

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

   Etymology: From erly, erli, ærlice, from ær + adverbial suffix -lice. Cognate with Old Norse árla ( > Danish and Norwegian årle, Swedish arla)

4. earlyadjective

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

   Etymology: From erly, erli, ærlice, from ær + adverbial suffix -lice. Cognate with Old Norse árla ( > Danish and Norwegian årle, Swedish arla)

5. earlyadjective

   Near the start or beginning.

   Etymology: From erly, erli, ærlice, from ær + adverbial suffix -lice. Cognate with Old Norse árla ( > Danish and Norwegian årle, Swedish arla)

Webster Dictionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Earlyadverb

   soon; in good season; seasonably; betimes; as, come early

   Etymology: [OE. erli, erliche, AS. rlce; r sooner + lc like. See Ere, and Like.]

2. Earlyadverb

   in advance of the usual or appointed time; in good season; prior in time; among or near the first; -- opposed to late; as, the early bird; an early spring; early fruit

   Etymology: [OE. erli, erliche, AS. rlce; r sooner + lc like. See Ere, and Like.]

3. Earlyadverb

   coming in the first part of a period of time, or among the first of successive acts, events, etc

   Etymology: [OE. erli, erliche, AS. rlce; r sooner + lc like. See Ere, and Like.]

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Early

   Early is a city located in Brown County in west-central Texas. The population was 2,762 at the 2010 census. It is named for Walter U. Early, who donated land for the schools. It is home to the Early Independent School District and the Heartland Mall.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Early

   ėr′li, adj. in good season: at or near the beginning of the day: relating to the beginning: happening in the near future.—adv. near the beginning: soon.—n. Ear′liness.—Early and late, at all times; Early bird, an early riser; Early English (archit.), generally applied to the form of Gothic in which the pointed arch was first employed in Britain. The Early English succeeded the Norman towards the end of the 12th century, and merged into the Decorated at the end of the 13th.—Keep early hours, to rise and go to bed betimes; Small and early (coll.), applied to evening parties; The early bird catches the worm, a proverb in favour of early rising. [A.S. árlíce—ǽr, before.]

Matched Categories

1. • Linguistics

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'early' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #311

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'early' in Written Corpus Frequency: #794

3. Adverbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'early' in Adverbs Frequency: #124

4. Adjectives Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'early' in Adjectives Frequency: #18

Anagrams for early »

1. relay, re-lay

2. layer

How to pronounce early?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say early in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of early in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of early in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7

Examples of early in a Sentence

1. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Fettig:

   Local prices in the U.K. will go up. It is too early to say what impact it will have on demand, but we are assuming there could be a much weaker demand environment, at least for the short term.

2. Rory McIlroy:

   I'd say last week was a bad top five, i got out early on Thursday morning and shot 66 and then sort of hung on for the rest of the week.

3. Joel Prakken:

   Deaths are likely to peak probably sometime late winter/early spring, it'll probably be sometime in second half of the year that people will be more comfortable going out.

4. The Oilers ':

   We knew they were going to start hard, and that’s exactly what happened, they scored a goal early in every period. We could n’t manage that the way we wanted, but we responded well and The Oilers '’s all that matters in the end Zach Hyman and Leon Draisaitl each scored twice for The Oilers '. Edmonton, which was playing the second of back-to-back games and for the third time in four nights, has outscored its opponents, 24-13. The Oilers ’ plus-11 goal differential is tied with Florida for best in the league.

5. Jake Sullivan:

   From our perspective, a critical early priority has to be to deal with what is an escalating nuclear crisis as they (Iran) move closer and closer to having enough fissile material for a weapon.

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