English Explanatory Dictionary

late

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  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. Recently 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.
noun
  1. A shift (scheduled work period) that takes place late in the day or at night.
adv
  1. After a deadline has passed, past a designated time.
  2. Formerly, especially in the context of service in a military unit.
  3. Not long ago; just now, recently.
noun
  1. Acronym of limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a form of dementia.

Pronunciation

/leɪt/ en-us-late.ogg En-uk-late.ogg /læɪt/ /let/ /leːt/

Word forms

late later latest lates

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”).

Synonyms

late tardy belatedly erenow freshly

Antonyms

early mid middle

Related words

overdue

Derived words

a day late and a dollar short alate as of late belate be late better late than never better to be late than be dead on time casually late day late, dollar short early and late fashionably late get late it's never too late to mend it's too late for sorry keep someone up late late antique late antiquity late binding late blight late bloomer late-blooming late-bound late-breaking late capitalism late capitalist late-capitalist latecomer latecoming lated late effect late fee late innings late in the day late in the game lateish late lamented lately late model late modern late modernity lateness late night late-night late on lateover late pass late position later late riser lateshit latesome late-stage capitalism late stage capitalism late tackle late-term late-to-bedder late to the ball late to the game late to the party late-type star

Translations

Armenian: ուշ Asturian: sero Bulgarian: късен Chinese Cantonese: 晏 Czech: pozdní Dutch: laat Dutch: late Esperanto: vespera Esperanto: -multaj Faroese: síðla Faroese: seint Finnish: myöhä Finnish: myöhäinen French: tard German: spät Gothic: 𐍃𐌴𐌹𐌸𐌿𐍃 Greek: αργά Hungarian: késő Icelandic: seint Ingrian: mööhä Italian: tardo Japanese: 晩い Latin: tardus Macedonian: доцен Old English: læt Polish: późny Portuguese: tardio Russian: по́здний Scottish Gaelic: anmoch Slovene: pôzen Spanish: tarde Spanish: largo (es veinteañero largo) Swedish: sen Thai: ดึก Walloon: tård Yiddish: שפּעט
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