early
1. [ adjective ] at or near the beginning of a period of time or course of events or before the usual or expected time
Examples:

"early morning" "an early warning" "early diagnosis" "an early death" "took early retirement" "an early spring" "early varieties of tomatoes"

Related terms: late middle aboriginal earlier proto matutinal previous premature proterozoic azoic archeozoic wee earlyish archean advance first timing
2. [ adjective ] being or occurring at an early stage of development
Examples:

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

Related terms: late crude beginning baby archaic embryo precocious incipient
3. [ adverb ] during an early stage
Synonyms: early_on
Examples:

"early on in her career"

4. [ adjective ] of the distant past
Synonyms: other former
Examples:

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

Related terms: past
5. [ adjective ] very young
Examples:

"at an early age"

Related terms: young
6. [ adverb ] before the usual time or the time expected
Synonyms: too_soon ahead_of_time
Examples:

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

Related terms: late
7. [ adjective ] (linguistics) of an early stage in the development of a language or literature
Examples:

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

Related terms: late middle linguistics Old
8. [ adverb ] in good time
Synonyms: betimes
Examples:

"he awoke betimes that morning"

9. [ noun ] Last name, frequency rank in the U.S. is 1994
10. [ adjective ] expected in the near future
Examples:

"look for an early end to the negotiations"

Related terms: future
Similar spelling:   earl
  Earley
  Earle
  Earlie