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HYPHEN
COUNT IN NET
WORDNET DICTIONARY
CIDE DICTIONARY
THESAURUS
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WORDNET DICTIONARY

Adjective earlier has 1 sense

• earlier(s = adj.all) earliest - (comparative and superlative of `early') more early than; most early; "a fashion popular in earlier times"; "his earlier work reflects the influence of his teacher"; "Verdi's earliest and most raucous opera"

Adverbial earlier has 3 senses

• earlier(r = adv.all) before - 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"
• earlier(r = adv.all) sooner - comparatives of `soon' or `early'; "Come a little sooner, if you can"; "came earlier than I expected"
• earlier(r = adv.all) in the beginning, in the first place, originally, to begin with - before now; "why didn't you tell me in the first place?"

CIDE DICTIONARY

THESAURUS

earlier

aforetime, already, antecedent, anterior, anticipatory, as yet, before, before all, before now, beforehand, beforetime, ci-devant, down, early, elder, ere, ere then, erenow, erewhile, erst, erstwhile, first, fore, foregoing, former, formerly, heretofore, historically, hitherto, in the past, in times past, inferior, lower, lowest, nether, older, once, only yesterday, or ever, preceding, precurrent, preexistent, prehistorically, previous, previously, prime, prior, priorly, recently, senior, so far, sooner, subjacent, then, theretofore, thus far, under, whilom, yesterday, yet

ROGET THESAURUS

earlier

Priority

N priority, antecedence, anteriority, precedence, pre-existence, precession, precursor, the past, premises, prior, previous, preceding, precedent, anterior, antecedent, pre- existing, pre-existent, former, foregoing, aforementioned, before- mentioned, abovementioned, aforesaid, said, introductory, before, prior to, earlier, previously, afore, aforehand, beforehand, ere, theretofore, erewhile, ere then, ere now, before then, before now, erewhile, already, yet, beforehand, on the eve of, prior tempore prior jure.

For further exploring for "earlier" in Webster Dictionary Online