1. At or near the beginning of a period of time or course of events or before the usual or expected time
   "early diagnosis"; "an early death"; "took early retirement"; "an early spring"; "early varieties of peas and tomatoes mature before most standard varieties"; "early morning"; "an early warning"
    
2. Being or occurring at an early stage of development
   "early man"; "an early computer"; "in an early stage"; "early forms of life"
    
3. Very young
   "at an early age"
    
4. Belonging to the distant past
   "the early inhabitants of Europe";
   - former, other
    
5. Expected in the near future
   "look for an early end to the negotiations"
    
6. (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"

1. Before the usual time or the time expected
   "she graduated early";
   - ahead of time, too soon
    
2. During an early stage
   "early on in her career";
   - early on
    
3. In good time
   "he awoke early that morning";
   - betimes [archaic]

Derived forms: earlier, earliest

See also: 1st, aboriginal, advance, archaean, archaeozoic, archaic, archean [US], archeozoic, azoic, beforehand, crude, earlier, earliest, earlyish, embryonic, embryotic [rare], 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, Stephen