belated

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adjective be·lat·ed \bi-ˈlā-təd, bē-\

Definition of belated

1 : delayed beyond the usual time One of the men was belated and did not join us at all. — William Pittenger
2 : existing or appearing past the normal or proper time a belated birthday card She received belated recognition for her work.

belatedly

adverb

belatedness

noun

See belated defined for English-language learners

See belated defined for kids

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Examples of belated in a Sentence

She received belated recognition for her scientific discovery.

Recent Examples of belated from the Web

On January 5, 2008, Christian went to bed after celebrating a belated Christmas holiday with his family.

— carrie arnold, The Atlantic, "The Uncertain Future of Genetic Testing," 19 July 2017
The belated realization that its ad revenue base is in apparently terminal decline has prompted a more sober assessment.

— alan murray, Fortune, "CEO Daily: Monday, 17th July," 17 July 2017
The celebration is actually a little belated — partly because of those College World Series pre-emptions.

— robert philpot, star-telegram, "KTCU’s ‘Rock Menagerie’ to celebrate 25th anniversary Sunday," 14 July 2017
A Foreign Ministry source quoted in major Moscow newspaper Izvestia suggested that the belated return to cold war-style tit-for-tat diplomacy may be imminent.

— fred weir, The Christian Science Monitor, "Do the US and Russia need clearer rules of engagement?," 13 July 2017
And running to Congress seems belated and impotent.

— The Hive, "How the Media Let Itself Get Crushed by Facebook," 11 July 2017
The first half of 2017 has ended with big moves in global bond yields and exchange rates, sparked by a belated realization that central banks are increasingly edging toward reining in extraordinary policy measures.

— richard barley, WSJ, "Time to Choose Sides in Global Markets," 30 June 2017
When Bowen reached the site, it was bathed in red lights as a belated warning for workers to stay away.

— patrick malone, Science | AAAS, "A near-disaster at a federal nuclear weapons," 29 June 2017
The Bee wishes a happy belated birthday to Gipson, who turned 51 on Sunday.

— rennie svirnovskiy, sacbee.com, "He lost his race last year. Now he’s going after seven Republicans," 26 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'belated.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Long ago, there was a verb "belate," which meant "to make late." From the beginning, "belate" tended to mostly turn up in the form of its past participle "belated." Eventually, "belate" itself fell out of use, leaving behind "belated" as an adjective that preserved the original notion of delay. As you may have guessed, "belate" and its descendant "belated" derive from the adjective "late"; "belate" was formed by simply combining the prefix be- ("to cause to be") with "late."