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late

UK/let/ US/leɪt/ very common informal
adjective (7) adverb (4)

adjective

1.

being or occurring at an advanced period of time or after a usual or expected time

  • “late evening”
  • “late 18th century”
  • “a late movie”
  • “took a late flight”
  • “had a late breakfast”
Antonyms
Similar
2.

after the expected or usual time; delayed

  • “a belated birthday card”
  • “I”
  • “;”
  • “;”
  • “;”
Synonyms
Similar
3.

of the immediate past or just previous to the present time

  • “a late development”
  • “their late quarrel”
  • “his recent trip to Africa”
  • “in recent months”
  • “a recent issue of the journal”
Synonyms
Similar
4.

having died recently

  • “her late husband”
Similar
5.

of a later stage in the development of a language or literature; used especially of dead languages

  • “Late Greek”
Antonyms
Similar
6.

at or toward an end or late period or stage of development

  • “the late phase of feudalism”
  • “a later symptom of the disease”
  • “later medical science could have saved the child”
Synonyms
Antonyms
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7.

(used especially of persons) of the immediate past

  • “the former president”
  • “our late President is still very active”
  • “the previous occupant of the White House”
Synonyms
Similar

adverb

1.

later than usual or than expected

  • “the train arrived late”
  • “we awoke late”
  • “the children came late to school”
  • “notice came so tardily that we almost missed the deadline”
  • “I belatedly wished her a happy birthday”
Synonyms
Antonyms
2.

to an advanced time

  • “deep into the night”
  • “talked late into the evening”
Synonyms
3.

at an advanced age or stage

  • “she married late”
  • “undertook the project late in her career”
4.

in the recent past

  • “he was in Paris recently”
  • “lately the rules have been enforced”
  • “as late as yesterday she was fine”
  • “feeling better of late”
  • “the spelling was first affected, but latterly the meaning also”
Synonyms

Origin

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”).

Related words

Word family

Pertaining to

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.