ahead of one's time

prep_phrase

"ahead-of-one-s-time" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“ahead of one's time” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a prep_phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
19
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In advance of concurrent commonly accepted ideas; showing characteristics of changes yet to be.

Corpus desk

Index EN-ahead-of-one-s-time · ahead of one's time · English

ahead of one's time · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 19 letters
  • VOW-8 8 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "A" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for ahead of one's time
PropertyValue
Headwordahead of one's time
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechPrep_phrase
Letters19
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “ahead of one's time” in English

ahead of one's timeranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

ahead of one's time is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprep_phrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "In advance of concurrent commonly accepted ideas; showing characteristics of changes yet to be.".

ahead of one's time doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is ahead of one's time, spelled A-H-E-A-D- -O-F- -O-N-E-'-S- -T-I-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    In advance of concurrent commonly accepted ideas; showing characteristics of changes yet to be.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how ahead of one's time appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. With his practice of dream interpretation by free association, Freud was both ahead of his time and behind his time.

Antonyms

before someone's timebehind one's time

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ahead of one's time"?
"ahead of one's time" is spelled A-H-E-A-D- -O-F- -O-N-E-'-S- -T-I-M-E.
What does "ahead of one's time" mean?
As a prep_phrase, "ahead of one's time" means: In advance of concurrent commonly accepted ideas; showing characteristics of changes yet to be.
What language does "ahead of one's time" come from?
"ahead of one's time" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
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Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list