ahead of one's/its time

idiom

: too advanced or modern to be understood or appreciated during the time when one lives or works

As a director, he was ahead of his time. His movies are now regarded as classics, but they were unpopular when he made them.

Examples of ahead of one's/its time in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

It could be argued that Wham! was ahead of its time. —Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY, 30 June 2023

The show was ahead of its time, portraying a very real situation and statistic: Most people who have abortions in real life are already parents. —Mikayla Dawson, Women's Health, 23 June 2023

The movie had a lot of special effects, including a computer with no keyboard and a virtual reality interface that was well ahead of its time. —Emil Sayegh, Forbes, 10 Jan. 2023

But really, the idea was just way ahead of its time, as many people consider the Simon to be the world’s first smartphone. —Popular Mechanics Editors, Popular Mechanics, 20 Oct. 2022

Looking back now, not even a decade after its Broadway premiere, Kinky Boots seems ahead of its time. —Joe Lynch, Billboard, 1 Sep. 2022

So for those listeners who remember what that product was, that was a PDA way, way, way ahead of its time. —Fortune Editors, Fortune, 3 Aug. 2022

The nonprofit’s virtual model proved ahead of its time. —Samuele Petruccelli, BostonGlobe.com, 26 July 2022

As Kissin relished the chromaticism and plumbed emotional depths, the familiar music towered over the house, all the while sounding freshly minted and still somehow far ahead of its time. —Zachary Lewis, cleveland, 25 Apr. 2022