early
/ˈɝli/ adverb A1- At a time before expected; sooner than usual. · We finished the project an hour sooner than scheduled, so we left early.· I had children too early (in life), so my first baby arrived early.
- Soon; in good time; seasonably.
Comparative earlier · Superlative earliest
From the library
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
Barry wished to go and return the same day, it was necessary to make a very early start.
The Manor House, with its many gables and its small diamond-paned windows, was still much as the builder had left it in the early seventeenth century.
The inspector was himself dependent, as he explained to us, upon a scribbled account forwarded to him by the milk train in the early hours of the morning.
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