early on

adverb

: at or during an early point or stage

the reasons were obvious early on in the experiment

Using Early on: Usage Guide

This adverb is sometimes objected to in American writing as an obtrusive Briticism. It is a relative newcomer to the language, having arisen in British English around 1928. It seems to have filled a need, however. It came into frequent use in American English in the late 1960s and is now well established on both sides of the Atlantic in both speech and writing.

Examples of early on in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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.

The snow should persist early on Sunday in New England before ending, Weather.com said. —

Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, 10 Feb. 2025 Sabrina's performance was early on in the night, so that might've been why the majority of people were sitting. —

Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 7 Feb. 2025 Drake has had a continuous grip on the culture, bridging hip-hop and pop from early on in his career. —

Taylor Crumpton, TIME, 7 Feb. 2025 The intrigue: After a flush of celebrity endorsements early on, the drugs were popularly seen as a luxury cosmetic intervention — along the same line as plastic surgery, which is famously commonplace in Utah. —

Erin Alberty, Axios, 7 Feb. 2025 See all Example Sentences for early on