Link Centre Dictionary

premature

pre·ma·ture

UK/ˌpɹɛ.məˈtjʊə/ US/ˈpɹɛ.mə.tjə/ fairly common informal

adjective

1.

born after a gestation period of less than the normal time

  • “a premature infant”
Antonyms
2.

too soon or too hasty

  • “our condemnation of him was a bit previous”
  • “a premature judgment”
Synonyms
Similar
3.

uncommonly early or before the expected time

  • “illness led to his premature death”
  • “alcohol brought him to an untimely end”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

From Latin praemātūrus, equivalent to pre- + mature. First use appears c. 1440 in a translation of Palladius's De Re Rustica.

Phrases

  • premature antifascist
  • premature birth
  • premature ejaculation
  • premature ejaculator
  • premature optimisation
  • premature optimization

Related words

Word family

See also

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.