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say it: UR-lee-ur
earlier is an adverb and adjective meaning "earlier in time; previously". It carries 4 recorded senses.
earlier in time; previously
“I had known her before”
“as I said before”
“he called me the day before but your call had come even earlier”
“her parents had died four years earlier”
“I mentioned that problem earlier”
comparatives of `soon' or `early'
“Come a little sooner, if you can”
“came earlier than I expected”
before now
“why didn't you tell me in the first place?”
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for earlier come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.