- after the expected, arranged or usual time
- I got up late.
- Can I stay up late tonight?
- She has to work late tomorrow.
- The Friday afternoon meeting started late, as usual.
- The birthday card arrived three days late.
- late for something I'm running late for school.
Grammar Point late / latelylate / lately- Late and lately are both adverbs, but late is used with similar meanings to the adjective late, whereas lately can only mean ‘recently’:
- We arrived two hours late.
- I haven’t heard from him lately.
- Look also at the idioms be too late (at the adjective) and too late (at the adverb).
- near the end of a period of time, a person’s life, etc.
- It happened late last year.
- late in something late in March/the afternoon
- He became an author late in life.
- as late as As late as (= as recently as) the 1990s, there was no effective treatment for this disease.
- near the end of the day
- There's a good film on late.
- Late that evening, there was a knock at the door.
- I studied from early morning till late at night.
- They worked late into the night to finish the report.
- Share prices fell early on but rose again late in the day.
Word OriginOld English læt (adjective; also in the sense ‘slow, tardy’), late (adverb), of Germanic origin; related to German lass, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin lassus ‘weary’ and let.
Idioms
See late in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee late in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishbetter late than never
- (saying) used especially when you, or somebody else, arrive/arrives late, or when something such as success happens late, to say that this is better than not coming or happening at allTopics Successc1
late in the day
(North American English also late in the game)
- (disapproving) after the time when an action could be successful
- He started working hard much too late in the day—he couldn't possibly catch up.
late of…
- (formal) until recently working or living in the place mentioned
- Professor Jones, late of Oxford University
of late
- (formal) recently
- I haven't seen him of late.
- The situation has become more confusing of late.
too late
- after the time when it is possible to do something successfully
- She's left it too late to apply for the job.
- I realized the truth too late.
Check pronunciation:
late