ere
/ɛə/US/ɛɚ/
ere adverb: at an earlier time. Also the obsolete form of ear.
Adverb
ere (not comparable)
- At an earlier time.
- Thys is he of whome I ſpake / he that cõmeth after me / was befoꝛe me be cauſe he was yer thẽ I.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, John j:[30], folio cxix, verso
Preposition
ere
- Before; sooner than.
- My ſelfe was ſtirring ere the breake of day, […]1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC, signature I3, verso
- The hill-tops rejoicing will ere long be at their ruddiest, and blush Good-night.1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Old-Dragoon Drouet”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book IV (Varennes), page 173
Conjunction
ere
- before.
- Syꝛ, come downe ere my child die.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 4:49, column 1
Contraction
IPA/eːɹə/
ere
Noun capitalized: ERE
ERE (plural EREs)
- Initialism of extended regular expression.
Proper noun capitalized: Ere
Ere
- A language spoken on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
Also used as
ere is also the obsolete form of ear.
ere meaning in Arabic
ere in Arabic
- before, sooner than
- قَبْل qabl, أْبْكَر ʔbkar
Examples of ere in a sentence
- Both 'ere buckets 'ave 'oles in 'em.
- Look! It's that bloke again what was 'ere yesterday!
- 'Allo, 'allo, 'allo! What's goin' on 'ere, then?
Forms of ere
| Adverb | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | yer |
| Noun | |
| plural | eres |
| plural | EREs |
| Contraction | |
| alternative form | 'ere |
Origin of ere
From Middle English er, from Old English ǣr (adverb, conjunction, and preposition), from Proto-West Germanic *airi, from Proto-Germanic *airiz, comparative of Proto-Germanic *airi (“early”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éyeri (“day, morning”) (compare Avestan 𐬀𐬫𐬀𐬭 (ayar, “day”), Gk. ἠέριος (ēérios, “at daybreak”), see also era, Albanian herët (“early in the morning, at daybreak”) ). The adverb erstwhile retains the Old English superlative ǣrest (“earliest”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian eer (“before”), Dutch eer (“before, sooner than”), German ehe (“before”).
Formed from is + there + a/an.
Words formed from ere
Phrases with ere
Words that rhyme with ere
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- declare
- hair
- Sinclair
- where
- ayr
- care
- layer
- mayor
- parterre
- fare
- glare
- lair
- pear
- prayer
- snare
- compare
- dare
- rare
- share
- swear
- ware
- wear and tear
- Ayer
- blare
- flair
- forbear
- Kerr
- laissez faire
- mousquetaire
- pare
- prepare
- repair
- stare
- unfair
- yare
- -ware
- abear
- aflare
- despair
- glair
- heir
- impair
- Pierre
- reair
- scare
- tare
- trillionaire
- Voltaire
Questions about ere
- What does ere mean?
- Ere means at an earlier time.
- What is ere in Arabic?
- Ere in Arabic is قَبْل (qabl), أْبْكَر (ʔbkar). See Ere meaning in Arabic.
- What part of speech is ere?
- Ere can be an adverb, a preposition, a conjunction or a contraction.
- How do you pronounce ere?
- Ere is pronounced /ɛə/ (UK).
Words near ere in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ere (page history and authors); ERE (page history and authors); Ere (page history and authors). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-air.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ere.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ere. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.