Sooner

How to spell sooner

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sooner

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sooner mean?

1. adverbAt an earlier time than expected or than another point of reference.
2. adverbUsed to express that one would rather do one thing than another.

Sooner in a sentence

• If the train had arrived sooner, we would have caught our connection.

• He would sooner take the early flight than wait at the airport all day.

• The report was due on Friday, but she finished it much sooner.

• I would sooner pay a little extra than risk losing the deposit.

Where does sooner come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the comparative form of 'soon', which comes from the Old English 'sona', meaning 'at once' or 'immediately'. In its earliest use the word carried a stronger sense than today; to do something 'sona' was to do it without any delay at all, rather than merely before long. Over the medieval period the meaning softened toward 'before long' or 'shortly', and the comparative 'sooner' developed naturally with the standard '-er' ending to express 'earlier in time'. The word also took on a sense of preference, as in 'I would sooner walk', a usage already established by the time of Shakespeare. Because the root is a native Germanic word, the spelling is phonetically tidy; the only real pause for an adult writer is the double 'o' that mirrors its parent 'soon'.

How the word is built

• soon (early, quickly)
• -er (comparative suffix)