Spelling.School · How to spell
How to spell late
What it means: Not on time or delayed.
In a sentence: I was late for the school bus today.
The part people get wrong
Often misspelled as laet or latee.
Same family: lately, lateness, latest, later, belated. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.
Where it comes from: “Late” comes from Old English “lǣt,” meaning ‘slow’ or ‘coming after the usual time.’ Over centuries, English speakers also began using it to mean ‘in the recent past,’ as in “late last year.”
Patterns it uses: Drop the e before a suffix?
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