late

CEFRA1

/leɪt/

adjective · adverb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Happening or arriving after the expected time.

  2. 02

    adverb

    After the usual or expected time.

Examples

  • His parents won't allow him to stay out late.

  • I was late to school.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
3

Also pronounced

  • /læɪt/
  • /let/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Associated with the end of a period.

  2. Specifically, near the end of the day.

  3. Near the end of a period of time.

More examples

In context

  • What keeps you up so late?

  • In Southern U.S., "evening" is used for middle to late afternoon.

  • The meeting is convened for late morning.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Because his alarm did not ring, John was blank for the important morning meeting.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

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”).