soon
UK/suːn//sun/
soon adjective: short in length of time from the present.
Adjective
soon (comparative sooner, superlative soonest)
- Short in length of time from the present.
- I need the soonest date you have available.
- Early.
- Late in the evening we arrived at Quincy where we bivouacked for the night and taken a soon start the next morning to march to the arsenal.1992, W. H. Andrews, A Paul Green Reader, page 129
- Got up pretty early, ate a soon breakfast, had the sulky and was about to start to Newtown when it commenced raining..1997, Dorothy Stanaland Samuel, Taliaferro Leslie Samuel, The Samuell/Samuel Families of Tidewater Virginia, page 148
- Used as an alternative to express 'to be going to' in the form 'to be soon to'.
- Hurry up, the wedding is soon to start!
- A new shop is soon to be opened in this street.
Adverb
soon (comparative sooner, superlative soonest)
- Immediately, instantly.
- Within a short time; quickly.
- His wife is likely to come too after him, but we just do not know how soon after.
- I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big...1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
- Early.
- How is it that ye are come so soon to day?1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 2:18
- “Been huntin’ fuh mah mule. Anybody seen ’im?” he asked.
“Seen ’im soon dis mornin’ over behind de school-house,” Lum said. “’’Bout ten o’clock or so. He musta been out all night tuh be way over dere dat early.”1937, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 6, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, University of Illinois Press, published 1978, page 87
- Readily; willingly; used with would, or some other word expressing will.
- I would as soon see a river winding through woods or in meadows, as when it is tossed up in so many whimsical figures at Versailles.1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian, number 101
Proper noun capitalized: Soon
Soon (plural Soons)
- A surname.
soon meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
soon in Hindi
- within a short time
- जल्दी jaldī
soon in Tamil
- within a short time
- விரைவில் viraivil, சீக்கிரம் cīkkiram, சீக்கிரமாக cīkkiramāka
soon in Marathi
- soon, early
- लवकर lavkar
soon in Urdu
- within a short time
- جَلْدی jaldī
More languagesFewer languages
- soon in Bengali
- শীঘ্রই śighroi
- soon in Telugu
- త్వరలో, త్వరలోనే
- soon in Malayalam
- ഉടനെ uṭane, ഉടൻ uṭaṉ
- soon in Kannada
- ಜಾಗ್ರತೆಯಾಗಿ, ಬೇಗನೆ, ಶೀಘ್ರವಾಗಿ, ತ್ವರೆಯಾಗಿ
- soon in Punjabi
- ਜਲਦੀ ਹੀ, ਜਲਦ ਹੀ
- soon in Gujarati
- ટૂંક સમયમાં, ટૂંક સમયમાં જ
- soon in Odia
- ବେଗି begi
- soon in Sanskrit
- शीघ्रं śīghraṃ, द्राक् drāk
- soon in Nepali
- चाँडै, चाँडै नै
- soon in Tagalog
- malapit na
- soon in Arabic
- قَرِيبًا qarīban, سَرْعَانَ مَا sarʕāna mā, سِرْعَانَ مَا sirʕāna mā, سُرْعَانَ مَا surʕāna mā
- soon in Indonesian
- segera
- soon in Thai
- ในไม่ช้า nai mâi cháa, ไม่นาน mâi naan, ในเร็ววัน, เร็วๆนี้
- soon in Vietnamese
- sớm, chẳng bao lâu nữa
- soon in Myanmar
- မကြာမတင် ma.krama.tang
Examples of soon in a sentence
- They were different from colored folks who had to be out to get a soon start.2000, Laurence G. Avery, A Paul Green Reader, page 220:
- Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- The poisoning was irreversible, and soon ended in psychosis and death.2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884:
Synonyms of soon
Antonyms
Forms of soon
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | sooner |
| superlative | soonest |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | sooner |
| superlative | soonest |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Soons |
Origin of soon
From Middle English sone, from Old English sōna (“immediately, at once”), from Proto-West Germanic *sān(ō), from Proto-Germanic *sēna, *sēnô (“immediately, soon, then”), from *sa (demonstrative pronoun), from Proto-Indo-European *só (demonstrative pronoun). Cognate with Scots sone, sune, schone (“soon, quickly, at once”), North Frisian san (“immediately, at once”), dialectal Dutch zaan (“soon, before long”), Middle Low German sân (“right afterwards, soon”), Middle High German sān, son (“soon, then”), Old High German sār (“immediately, soon”). Compare also Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐍃 (suns, “immediately, soon”), from Proto-Germanic *suniz (“soon”).
Borrowed from Chinese 孫／孙 (Mandarin: Sūn, Cantonese: syun¹, Hokkien: Sun), also spelled as Sun.
Words formed from soon
- a fool and his money are soon parted
- a little pot is soon hot
- any time soon
- anytime soon
- as soon as
- as soon as look at someone
- as soon as possible
- eaten bread is soon forgotten
- eftsoons
- get well soon
- just as soon as
- none too soon
- not a minute too soon
- not a moment too soon
- oversoon
- real soon now
- you soon
- soon enough
- sooner or later
- soonish
- soonly
- soonness
- soon-to-be
- soon to follow
- soon-to-wed
- Soon™
- speak too soon
- too soon
Phrases with soon
Words that rhyme with soon
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- croon
- blue moon
- boon
- monsoon
- noon
- pontoon
- raccoon
- tribune
- attune
- dragoon
- hoon
- immune
- picayune
- platoon
- swoon
- tycoon
- afternoon
- baboon
- commune
- doubloon
- harpoon
- jejune
- pantaloon
- picaroon
- shalloon
- bassoon
- buffoon
- cocoon
- dabloon
- entune
- gadroon
- hewn
- impugn
- jargoon
- june
- lacune
- last chance saloon
- lune
- macaroon
- man in the moon
- maroon
- poon
- puccoon
- ratoon
- scone
- toon
- trial balloon
- troon
Questions about soon
- What does soon mean?
- Soon means short in length of time from the present.
- What is soon in Hindi?
- Soon in Hindi is जल्दी (jaldī). See Soon meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use soon in a sentence?
- They were different from colored folks who had to be out to get a soon start.
- What part of speech is soon?
- Soon can be an adjective, an adverb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce soon?
- Soon is pronounced /suːn/ (UK).
Words near soon in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: soon (page history and authors); Soon (page history and authors); लवकर (Marathi) (page history and authors); soon (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ഉടനെ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); soon (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); soon (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); soon (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ବେଗି (Odia) (page history and authors); soon (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-soon.ogg.
Cite this entry: “soon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/soon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.