Premature

How to spell premature

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce premature

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does premature mean?

1. adjectiveHappening or done before the proper, usual, or expected time.

Premature in a sentence

• The baby was born six weeks premature and needed extra care.

• Announcing the merger now would be premature and could unsettle investors.

Where does premature come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin praematurus, which combined prae, meaning 'before', with maturus, meaning 'ripe' or 'timely'. The literal sense was therefore something ripening before its proper season, an image drawn straight from agriculture and fruit. Latin maturus is also the ancestor of the everyday word 'mature' and of 'maturity', so the family connection is easy to see and helps anchor the spelling: premature is simply 'mature' with the prefix 'pre-' attached at the front. English adopted the word in the sixteenth century, at first describing fruit or crops that came too early, and only gradually broadened it to cover births, decisions, and conclusions that arrive ahead of time. The steady 'pre-' plus 'mature' structure is the reliable cue, since the trap is mostly remembering that the ending is the same '-ture' that closes 'mature'.

How the word is built

• pre- (before)
• mature (ripe, fully developed)