# late

> English word · Adjective · IPA /leɪt/ · frequency rank #456

## Definitions
1. Near the end of a period of time.
2. Specifically, near the end of the day.
3. Associated with the end of a period.
4. Not arriving or occurring until after an expected time.
5. Levied as a surcharge on a payment which has not arrived by a specified deadline.
6. Not having had an expected menstrual period.
7. Deceased, dead: used particularly when speaking of the dead person's actions while alive. (Generally must be preceded by a possessive or an article, commonly "the"; see usage notes. Can itself only precede the person's name, never follow it.)
8. Existing or holding some position not long ago, but not now; departed, or gone out of office.
9. Recent — relative to the noun it modifies.
10. Of a star or class of stars, cooler than the sun.

## Etymology
From Middle English late, lat, from Old English læt (“slow; slack, lax, negligent; late”), from Proto-West Germanic *lat, from Proto-Germanic *lataz (“slow, lazy”). By surface analysis, deverbal from let.
Cognates
Cognate with Yola laate (“late”), North Frisian leed, leet, lääs (“late”), Saterland Frisian leet (“late”), Dutch, German Low German laat (“late, tardy”), Danish lad (“languid, lazy, indolent”), Faroese, Icelandic latur (“lazy”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish lat (“lazy”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐍄𐍃 (lats, “lazy, slothful”).

## Easily confused with
- **le** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-le)
- **Lt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-lt)
- **lot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-lot)
- **let** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-let)
- **law** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-law)
- **lie** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-lie)
- **lee** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-lee)
- **lay** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-lay)
- **lit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-lit)
- **lax** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-lax)
- **Lau** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-lau)
- **LST** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-lst)
- **LRT** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-lrt)
- **lye** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-lye)
- **lav** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-lav)
- **like** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-like)
- **life** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-life)
- **love** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-love)
- **live** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-live)
- **line** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-line)

## Common misspellings (4)
`alte`, `laet`, `llate`, `ltae`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/late