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Synonyms: early Definition: at or near the beginning of a period of time or course of events or before the usual or expected time Usage: 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

Hypernyms: aboriginal, primaeval, primal, primeval, primordial Definition: having existed from the beginning; in an earliest or original stage or state Usage: aboriginal forests; primal eras before the appearance of life on earth; the forest primeval; primordial matter; primordial forms of life

Hypernyms: advance, beforehand Definition: being ahead of time or need Usage: gave advance warning; was beforehand with her report

Hypernyms: archaean, archean Definition: of or relating to the earliest known rocks formed during the Precambrian Eon

Hypernyms: archaeozoic, archeozoic Definition: of or belonging to earlier of two divisions of the Precambrian era Usage: archeozoic life forms

Hypernyms: azoic Definition: before the appearance of life Usage: azoic rocks contain not organic remains

Hypernyms: earlier, earliest Definition: (comparative and superlative of `early') more early than; most early Usage: a fashion popular in earlier times; his earlier work reflects the influence of his teacher; Verdi's earliest and most raucous opera

Hypernyms: earlyish Definition: being somewhat early Usage: at an earlyish hour

Hypernyms: premature, untimely Definition: uncommonly early or before the expected time Usage: illness led to his premature death; alcohol brought him to an untimely end

Hypernyms: premature, previous Definition: too soon or too hasty Usage: our condemnation of him was a bit previous; a premature judgment

Hypernyms: proterozoic Definition: formed in the later of two divisions of the Precambrian era Usage: proterozoic life forms

Hypernyms: proto Definition: indicating the first or earliest or original Usage: `proto' is a combining form in a word like `protolanguage' that refers to the hypothetical ancestor of another language or group of languages

Hypernyms: wee Definition: very early Usage: the wee hours of the morning

Synonyms: early Definition: being or occurring at an early stage of development Usage: in an early stage; early forms of life; early man; an early computer

Hypernyms: primitive, archaic Definition: little evolved from or characteristic of an earlier ancestral type Usage: archaic forms of life; primitive mammals; the okapi is a short-necked primitive cousin of the giraffe

Hypernyms: young, new Definition: (of crops) harvested at an early stage of development; before complete maturity Usage: new potatoes; young corn

Hypernyms: primitive, rude, crude Definition: belonging to an early stage of technical development; characterized by simplicity and (often) crudeness Usage: the crude weapons and rude agricultural implements of early man; primitive movies of the 1890s; primitive living conditions in the Appalachian mountains

Hypernyms: embryonic, embryotic Definition: in an early stage of development Usage: the embryonic government staffed by survivors of the massacre; an embryonic nation, not yet self-governing

Hypernyms: inchoate, incipient Definition: only partly in existence; imperfectly formed Usage: incipient civil disorder; an incipient tumor; a vague inchoate idea

Hypernyms: precocious Definition: appearing or developing early Usage: precocious flowers appear before the leaves as in some species of magnolias

Synonyms: early Definition: of an early stage in the development of a language or literature Usage: 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

Hypernyms: Old Definition: of a very early stage in development Usage: Old English is also called Anglo Saxon; Old High German is High German from the middle of the 9th to the end of the 11th century

Synonyms: early Definition: very young Usage: at an early age

Hypernyms: young, immature Definition: (used of living things especially persons) in an early period of life or development or growth Usage: young people

Synonyms: former, early, other Definition: belonging to the distant past Usage: the early inhabitants of Europe; former generations; in other times

Hypernyms: past Definition: earlier than the present time; no longer current Usage: time past; his youth is past; this past Thursday; the past year