Word.ws English Dictionary

sooner

UK/ˈsuːnə//ˈsunɚ/

sooner is the comparative form of soon.

Meaning of soon

Adjective

soon (comparative sooner, superlative soonest)

  1. Short in length of time from the present.
    • I need the soonest date you have available.
  2. (US, dialectal) 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
  3. 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!

See all 8 meanings of soon

Adverb

sooner

  1. rather.
    • I would sooner die than marry you!
    • Sooner than have a problem later, I made sure the policy was in order.

Noun capitalized: Sooner

Sooner (plural Sooners)

  1. (informal) A native or resident of the American state of Oklahoma
    1. (informal, collegiate sports) A competitor representing the University of Oklahoma.
  2. (historical) One who crossed into Indian territory before the official opening of settlement in the Oklahoma land rush, in order to obtain land sooner.
    • Some skunk of a Sooner, sneaking in ahead of the Run, had set the blaze to keep the Boomers off, saving the land for himself.1930, Edna Ferber, Cimarron, page 27

Synonyms of sooner

Forms of sooner

pluralSooners

Words formed from sooner

Phrases with sooner

Words that rhyme with sooner

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sooner

What does sooner mean?
Sooner means rather.
What is sooner the comparative form of?
Sooner is the comparative form of soon.
What part of speech is sooner?
Sooner can be an adverb or a noun.
How do you pronounce sooner?
Sooner is pronounced /ˈsuːnə/ (UK).

Words near sooner in the dictionary

  1. Soonamookee
  2. soondae
  3. soone
  4. Soonee
  5. Soonees
  6. sooner
  7. sooner child
  8. sooner or later
  9. sooner rather than later
  10. Sooner State
  11. Sooner Stater

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sooner (page history and authors); Sooner (page history and authors); soon (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-us-sooner.ogg.

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