early

Syllables: ear·ly/ˈɜːli//ˈɝli/

early adjective: at a time in advance of the usual or expected event.

Adjective

early (comparative earlier, superlative earliest)

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
- 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...2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28
Synonyms:

premature
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.
Synonyms:

new
After but close to the start of a period of time.
- 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:

first
In the starting hours of the day.
- It's too early for this sort of thing. I'm not awake yet.
Having begun to occur; in its early stages.
- early cancer
- harvesting early peaches
Of a star or class of stars, hotter than the sun.

Antonyms:

late

Noun

early (plural earlies)

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

Adverb

early (comparative earlier, superlative earliest)

At a time before expected; sooner than usual.
- We finished the project an hour sooner than scheduled, so we left early.
- I had children too early (in life), so my first baby arrived early.
Soon; in good time; seasonably.
- [T]thoſe that ſeeke me early, ſhall find me.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 8:17, column 1
- You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear; / Tomorrow 'ill be the happiest time of all the blythe Newyear; […]1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “The May Queen”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 90

Proper noun capitalized: Early

Early (plural Earlys)

A surname.

early meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

early in Hindi

at a time in advance of the usual: शीघ्र śīghra, सवेरा saverā
at a time before expected: जल्दी jaldī

early in Tamil

early, betimes, before it is too late: உண்டாக uṇṭāka

early in Urdu

at a time in advance of the usual: سویرا savera
at a time before expected: جلدی jaldī

early in Bengali

at a time in advance of the usual: আশু aśu

More languagesFewer languages

early in Telugu: పెందలాడే pendalāḍē, ముందు mundu, పెందల-కడ pendala-kaḍa
early in Malayalam: നേരത്തെ nēratte
early in Kannada: ಮುಂಚಿನ, ವೇಗದ, ಶೀಘ್ರವಾದ, ಕ್ಷಿಪ್ರ
early in Punjabi: ਸਵੇਰਾ saverā
early in Gujarati: વહેલું vahelũ
early in Assamese: সোনকালে xünkale, আগতীয়াকৈ agotiakoi
early in Nepali: प्रारम्भिक
early in Arabic: بَاكِر bākir, مُبَكِّرًا mubakkiran, بَاكِرًا bākiran
early in Malay: awal
early in Indonesian: dini, pagi-pagi
early in Persian: زود zud
early in Thai: เร็ว reo, เนิ่น nə̂ən, เช้า cháao, แต่วัน dtàe wan
early in Vietnamese: sớm, ban đầu, đầu mùa
early in Myanmar: စော cau:, စောစော cau:cau:

Examples of early in a sentence

Early exposure to pet allergens and pet-related bacteria accustoms the body to allergens.
Two drivers have already gone into the pit this early in the race.
She looks like she's in her early twenties, perhaps 21 or 22 years old?

All 40 example sentences with early

Synonyms of early

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of early

Forms of early

Adjective
comparative	earlier
superlative	earliest
Noun
plural	earlies
Adverb
comparative	earlier
superlative	earliest
Proper noun
plural	Earlys

Origin of early

From Middle English erly, erlich, earlich, from Old English ǣrlīċ (“early”, adjective), equivalent to ere + -ly.

From Middle English erly, orely, arely, erliche, arliche, from Old English ǣrlīċe, ārlīċe (“early; early in the morning”, adverb), equivalent to ere + -ly. Cognate with Old Norse árliga, árla ( > Danish årle, Swedish arla, Norwegian årle, Faroese árla).

Words formed from early

Phrases with early

57 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with early

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about early

What does early mean?: Early means at a time in advance of the usual or expected event.
What is early in Hindi?: Early in Hindi is शीघ्र (śīghra), सवेरा (saverā), जल्दी (jaldī). See Early meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is early?: Early can be an adjective, a noun, an adverb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce early?: Early is pronounced /ˈɜːli/ (UK).

Words near early in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: early (page history and authors); Early (page history and authors); உண்டாக (Tamil) (page history and authors); పెందల-కడ (Telugu) (page history and authors); നേരത്തെ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); early (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਸਵੇਰਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); early (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-early.ogg, En-us-early.ogg.

Cite this entry: “early.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/early. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.