early
ear·ly/ˈɝli/adjective, noun, adverb
early is spelled E-A-R-L-Y, 2 syllables: ear·ly. The wrong spelling people search most is eearly: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 435 of all searches for the word. Early is an adjective meaning “At a time in advance of the usual or expected event”.
How many letters and syllables are in early?
| Letters | 5: E-A-R-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: ear·ly |
| In writing | 269 times per million words; the 356th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, eearly, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell early?
Early is spelled E-A-R-L-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 430 of the searches for early in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is early?
Early appears 269 times per million words in written English, the 356th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce early?
- UK /ˈɜːli/
- US /ˈɝli/
- US /ɚ̞li/
Early has 2 syllables, split ear·ly in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-early.ogg, En-us-early.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with early?
6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as early from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹli/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: layer, relay, leary.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of early
- earlier comparative
- earliest superlative
- earlies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does early mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
At a time in advance of the usual or expected event.
at eleven, we went for an early lunch; she began reading at an early age; his mother suffered an early death
- 2
Arriving a time before expected; sooner than on time.
You're early today! I don't usually see you before nine o'clock.
- 3
After but close to the start of a period of time.
The play "Two Gentlemen of Verona" is one of Shakespeare's early works.
- 4
In the starting hours of the day.
It's too early for this sort of thing. I'm not awake yet.
- 5
Having begun to occur; in its early stages.
early cancer
- 6
Of a star or class of stars, hotter than the sun.
noun
- 1
informalA shift (scheduled work period) that takes place early in the day.
adverb
- 1
At a time before expected; sooner than usual.
We finished the project an hour sooner than scheduled, so we left early.
- 2
Soon; in good time; seasonably.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Early in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | de bonne heure, tôt, en avance , ancien, tôtif |
| German | früh, verfrüht, frühzeitig |
| Portuguese | precoce, cedo , inicial , adiantado |
| Spanish | temprano, tempranero , a comienzos de, a principio de |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does early come from?
From Middle English erly, erlich, earlich, from Old English ǣrlīċ (“early”, adjective), equivalent to ere + -ly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).