Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

early

UK /ˈɜːli/ · US /ˈɝli/ adjective, noun, adverb, proper noun

Forms earlier earliest earlies Earlys

  1. adjective At a time in advance of the usual or expected event. “at eleven, we went for an early lunch; she began reading at an early age; his mother suffered an early death”
  2. adjective Arriving a time before expected; sooner than on time. “You're early today! I don't usually see you before nine o'clock.”
  3. adjective After but close to the start of a period of time. “The play "Two Gentlemen of Verona" is one of Shakespeare's early works.”
  4. adjective In the starting hours of the day. “It's too early for this sort of thing. I'm not awake yet.”
  5. adjective Having begun to occur; in its early stages. “early cancer”
  6. adjective (astronomy) Of a star or class of stars, hotter than the sun.
  7. noun (informal) A shift (scheduled work period) that takes place early in the day.
  8. adverb At a time before expected; sooner than usual. “We finished the project an hour sooner than scheduled, so we left early.”
  9. adverb Soon; in good time; seasonably.
  10. proper noun A surname.

Synonyms

premature new first early doors prematurely former other early on ahead of time too soon betimes

Antonyms

late terminal mid middle tardily

Etymology

From Middle English erly, erlich, earlich, from Old English ǣrlīċ (“early”, adjective), equivalent to ere + -ly.

From Middle English erly, orely, arely, erliche, arliche, from Old English ǣrlīċe, ārlīċe (“early; early in the morning”, adverb), equivalent to ere + -ly. Cognate with Old Norse árliga, árla ( > Danish årle, Swedish arla, Norwegian årle, Faroese árla).

Webster’s 1913

  1. adverb Soon; in good season; seasonably; betimes; as, come early.
  2. adjective In advance of the usual or appointed time; in good season; prior in time; among or near the first; --opposed to Ant: late; as, the early bird; an early spring; early fruit.
  3. adjective Coming in the first part of a period of time, or among the first of successive acts, events, etc. Seen in life's early morning sky. Keble.

Etymology [OE. erli, erliche, AS. ; sooner + lic like. See Ere, and Like.]

Etymology [OE. earlich. Early, adv.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “early”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details

Sanskrit

Sanskrit dictionary entries whose meaning includes “early” (best matches first).

All 61 Sanskrit matches →