late

1. 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”

   Synonymsbelatedlytardily

   Antonymsearly
2. 2.

   to an advanced time

   “deep into the night”

   “talked late into the evening”

   Synonymsdeep
3. 3.

   at an advanced age or stage

   “she married late”

   “undertook the project late in her career”
4. 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”

   Synonymsrecentlylatelyof latelatterly

Other forms of late

comparative

later·

superlative

latest·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about late

What does late mean?

late means "being or occurring at an advanced period of time or after a usual or expected time". That is the primary sense; the word has 11 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in late?

late has 1 syllable: late. In IPA it is /ˈleɪt/.

What is another word for late?

Close synonyms include belated, tardy, recent, later, former. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of late?

The recorded antonyms are early, middle, early, middle.

Is late a common word?

late is banded "Core" — among the few thousand words that carry most english. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with late?

56 words rhyme with late. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.