Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Occurring, growing, or existing before the customary, correct, or assigned time; uncommonly or unexpectedly early: a premature end.
- adj. Born after a gestation period of less than the normal time: a premature infant.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Arriving too early at maturity; mature or ripe before the proper time; hence, coming into existence or occurring too soon; too early; untimely; overhasty.
Wiktionary
- adj. Occurring before a state of readiness or maturity has arrived.
- adj. Taking place earlier than anticipated, prepared for, or desired.
- adj. informal Suffering from premature ejaculation.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Mature or ripe before the proper time.
- adj. Happening, arriving, existing, or performed before the proper or usual time; adopted too soon; too early; untimely.
- adj. Arriving or received without due authentication or evidence.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. uncommonly early or before the expected time
- adj. born after a gestation period of less than the normal time
- adj. too soon or too hasty
Etymologies
- circa 1520, From Latin praematurus, equivalent to pre- + mature. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, ripe, from Latin praemātūrus, ripe too early : prae-, pre- + mātūrus, ripe; see mā-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The most general and inclusive way in which to designate all the phenomena that sociology proper considers, without importing into the term premature hypotheses by way of explanation, is to assert that they are the phenomena of "contact" between persons.”
“Mr. Bush warned against what he called a premature withdrawal of U.S. forces, saying the troop increase he ordered needs time to work.”
“Mr. Bush will repeat his mantra about the harm he says withdrawing troops prematurely would cause and vow not to set what he calls premature deadlines.”
“In a statement in Pretoria CP leader Dr Ferdi Hartzenberg also cautioned against what he called the premature outlining of borders for such a "volkstaat".”
“So, the chairman of the commission died pretty young, in his early 40's from what I call premature senility, that is, arteriosclerosis, which is unusual, but he did and died very suddenly.”
“Now sir, that is what I call a premature judgment!”
“Train traffic had been worsened Tuesday by a wildcat strike by Belgian train drivers protesting what they called the premature blaming of one their own for the accident.”
“Trustee Kirsten Livak apologized to audience members about what she described as a premature announcement.”
“Around the offices of Sports Illustrated, we try to resist what we call the premature trend story.”
“In the notes of approbation which you have attached to each piece in the Vollm now printing, a praise too direct, if not premature, is made to meet the publick eye.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘premature’.
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Sarah's words
adept, pedagogic, pedagogy, discerning, genuine, articulate, collaboration, enterprise, sterile, asunder, prudent, imprudent and 19 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Wharton, Edith. Age of Innocence. 1920
A list of difficult words for L2-12 learners.
Faust, erection, metropolitan, splendor, shabby, conservatives, cherished, inconvenient, clung, acoustics, coupe, scramble and 261 more...
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SAT Words Appearing More Than Once on...
A list of 166 words that have appeared more than once on official SAT exams. Based on Gruber's SAT Word Master list.
abolish, ameliorate, ambulatory, ambivalent, acquiesce, affirmation, atrophy, anchor, amity, amass, accent, abridge and 154 more...
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wordsmithing part deux
because wordsmith is not a verb.
enmity, incarnate, chignon, nape, solitude, nocturne, decorum, warren, svelte, interstice, serene, charlotte and 488 more...
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ari
words
craven, perennial, incumbent, infraction, truancy, foreboding, missgiving, understudy, upkeep, withdrawal, retreat, underscore and 95 more...
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Literarie: Mussolini: My Part In His ...
Bits from the predictably odd and chaotic Spike Milligan book of this title. He writes in diary-style about his service in the British Army's World War II campaign in Italy.
"I admit the way...b4, matelot, asleep, landing, fags, spam, ash wednesday, derv, nebelwurfer, the shits, hole in the ground, cookhouse and 79 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for premature.
bilby "We have news that 17 Battery has had a premature. No one killed but one gunner injured. This was strange as the gun had just come back from workshops, where it had been repaired for a previous premature."
- Spike Milligan, 'Mussolini: My Part In His Downfall.' Apr 19, 2009