late
/leɪt/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.34 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Near the end of a period of time.
adj
Specifically, near the end of the day.
adj
Associated with the end of a period.
adj
Not having had an expected menstrual period.
Example Sentences
- "The seedlings appeared to be coming along nicely until a late frost killed them."
- "The meeting is convened for late morning."
- "In Southern U.S., "evening" is used for middle to late afternoon."
- "It was getting late and I was tired."
- "Late Latin is less fully inflected than Classical Latin."
- "The flowers were late in blooming because of the prolonged cold weather."
Etymology
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”), German lass (“lazy, sluggish”), Danish lad (“languid, lazy, indolent”), Faroese, Icelandic latur (“lazy”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish lat (“lazy”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐍄𐍃 (lats, “lazy, slothful”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /leɪt/
- British English: /leɪt/