early

adjective
ear·ly
/ˈɜːli/

At a time in advance of the usual or expected event.

Example

“at eleven, we went for an early lunch;  she began reading at an early age;  his mother suffered an early death”

Other meanings

Arriving a time before expected; sooner than on time.
“You're early today! I don't usually see you before nine o'clock.”
After but close to the start of a period of time.
“The play "Two Gentlemen of Verona" is one of Shakespeare's early works.”

Example sentences

“You should arrive at least five minutes early.”
Tatoeba · ddnktr · CC0
“The early fig grows under the leaf.”
Tatoeba · AmarMecheri · CC0
“I didn't wake up very early this morning.”
Tatoeba · shekitten · CC0

Word history

From Old English "ǣrlīċ".

Where this comes from

This definition is adapted from “early” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.