Before the due date

The answer

EARLY

5 letters. See every clue for this answer on the EARLY answer page.

Used 16 times across 13 distinct years; most recently in 2026; first recorded in 1997. It appears in 6 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

Other clues for EARLY

Every other clue in this collection answered by EARLY, most used first.

• Ahead of time - used 50 times, most recently in 2025
• Ahead of schedule - used 43 times, most recently in 2026
• Before the deadline - used 22 times, most recently in 2024
• Primitive - used 22 times, most recently in 2025
• Too soon - used 20 times, most recently in 2023
• Premature - used 18 times, most recently in 2025
• Betimes - used 16 times, most recently in 1997
• In advance - used 14 times, most recently in 2025
• Before dawn - used 13 times, most recently in 2024
• More than punctual - used 12 times, most recently in 2013
• Jumping the gun - used 11 times, most recently in 2020
• Before the bell - used 10 times, most recently in 2023
• In the wee hours - used 9 times, most recently in 2026
• With time to spare - used 9 times, most recently in 2021
• "... and ___ to rise ..." - used 7 times, most recently in 2012
• At the crack of dawn - used 7 times, most recently in 2010
• ___ bird - used 6 times, most recently in 2026
• Kind of bird - used 6 times, most recently in 2008

Related clues

Clues in this collection of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.

• In the know - AWARE, used 356 times
• To the point - TERSE, used 194 times
• Take the wheel - STEER, used 188 times
• Cream of the crop - ELITE, used 175 times
• In the lead - AHEAD, used 166 times
• Of the kidneys - RENAL, used 166 times

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