as in first
coming before all others in time or order
the earliest computers were massive machines that practically filled up a room
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for earliest
Adjective
-
If approved for the public safety role, Williams would be Pittsburgh's first Black director of the department.—
Chilekasi Adele,
CBS News,
28 Jan. 2026 -
Johnson was around in 2013 when Dave Gettleman took defensive tackles Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short in the first and second rounds, respectively, in Gettleman’s first draft as Carolina’s GM.—
Joseph Person,
New York Times,
28 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
These two agents appear to be the two officers identified as the shooters in an initial report by the Department of Homeland Security about the incident.—
Yahya Abou-Ghazala,
CNN Money,
30 Jan. 2026
-
During an initial court appearance Thursday, a judge granted the government's request to detain Kazmierczak pending a detention hearing Tuesday.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
30 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
The Oh-My-God particle first interacted with an atomic nucleus in the upper atmosphere, producing a series of daughter particles that each maintain a fraction of the original particle’s momentum, which then collide with greater and greater numbers of particles, and so on.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
30 Jan. 2026
-
The show, clearly meant to be an appealing first exposure for K-pop outsiders, selects Top 40 hits from across the decades and pairs the original artists up with Korean idols, who transform them in ways meant to resemble the K-pop formula.—
Sheldon Pearce,
NPR,
29 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Live and Let Die also notably broke the color barrier, with Bond’s relationship with a Black woman, Rosie Carver (Gloria Hendry), being among the foremost mainstream films to feature an interracial romance.—
Sezin Devi Koehler,
Entertainment Weekly,
27 Jan. 2026
-
Even now the Schrödinger equation remains physicists’ foremost window into the quantum realm.—
Joseph Howlett,
Scientific American,
27 Jan. 2026
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Earliest.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/earliest. Accessed 31 Jan. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
