Adjective: earliest ur-lee-ist
Adverb: earliest ur-lee-ist
- (comparative and superlative of 'early') more early than; most early
"Verdi's earliest and most raucous opera";
Adjective: early (earlier,earliest) ur-lee
- With the least delay
"the earliest I can arrive is 3 P.M.";
- At or near the beginning of a period of time or course of events or before the usual or expected time
"early morning"; "an early warning"; "early diagnosis"; "an early death"; "took early retirement"; "an early spring"; "early varieties of peas and tomatoes mature before most standard varieties"
- Being or occurring at an early stage of development
"in an early stage"; "early forms of life"; "early man"; "an early computer"
- Belonging to the distant past
"the early inhabitants of Europe";
- former, other
- Very young
"at an early age"
- (linguistics) of an early stage in the development of a language or literature
"the Early Hebrew alphabetical script is that used mainly from the 11th to the 6th centuries B.C."; "Early Modern English is represented in documents printed from 1476 to 1700"
- Expected in the near future
"look for an early end to the negotiations"
See also: aboriginal, advance, archaean, archaeozoic, archaic, archean [US], archeozoic, azoic, beforehand, crude, earlyish, embryonic, embryotic, first, future, immature, inchoate, incipient, new, Old, past, precocious, premature, previous, primaeval, primal, primeval, primitive, primordial, proterozoic, proto, rude, timing, untimely, wee, young
Antonym: late, middle
Encyclopedia: Early, TX