How to spell premature

hear itpre·ma·ture/,primə'tʊr/adjectivePrefixes and work

What it means: Happening too soon or before expected.

In a sentence: The baby bird hatched from its egg because it was a bit premature.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as premeture or pre-mature.

Same family: mature, maturity, immature, prematurely, prematurity. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Premature comes from Latin ‘praematurus,’ formed from ‘prae’ meaning ‘before’ and ‘maturus’ meaning ‘ripe’ or ‘fully grown.’ So the word literally suggests something that happens ‘before it is ripe’ or ready.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

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