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

Synonym(s): earliest

· 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"

Antonym(s): middle, late

· being or occurring at an early stage of development; "in an early stage"; "early forms of life"; "early man"; "an early computer"

Antonym(s): late

· belonging to the distant past; "the early inhabitants of Europe"; "former generations"; "in other times"

Synonym(s): former, other

· very young; "at an early age"

· 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"

Antonym(s): middle, late

· expected in the near future; "look for an early end to the negotiations"

· earlier in time; previously; "I had known her before"; "as I said before"; "he called me the day before but your call had come even earlier"; "her parents had died four years earlier"; "I mentioned that problem earlier"

Synonym(s): before

· comparatives of `soon' or `early'; "Come a little sooner, if you can"; "came earlier than I expected"

Synonym(s): sooner

· before now; "why didn't you tell me in the first place?"

Synonym(s): in_the_first_place, in_the_beginning, to_begin_with, originally