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late

Pronunciation: /leɪt/

The English word “late” has 14 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Near the end of a period of time.
  2. Specifically, near the end of the day.
  3. Associated with the end of a period.
  4. Not arriving or occurring until after an expected time.
  5. Levied as a surcharge on a payment which has not arrived by a specified deadline.
  6. Not having had an expected menstrual period.
  7. Recently deceased, dead: used particularly when speaking of the dead person's actions while alive. (Generally must be preceded by a possessive or an article, commonly “the”; see usage notes. Can itself only precede the person's name, never follow it.)
  8. Existing or holding some position not long ago, but not now; departed, or gone out of office.
  9. Recent — relative to the noun it modifies.
  10. Of a star or class of stars, cooler than the sun.

noun

  1. A shift (scheduled work period) that takes place late in the day or at night.

adverb

  1. After a deadline has passed, past a designated time.
  2. Formerly, especially in the context of service in a military unit.
  3. Not long ago; just now, recently.

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,…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.