1 before now or before a particular time in the past:
'Lunch?' 'No thanks, I've already eaten.' * We got there early but Mike had already left.
2 used to express surprise that sth has happened so soon or so early:
Is it 10 o'clock already? * You're not leaving already, are you?
3 used to emphasize that a situation or problem exists:
I'm already late. * There are far too many people already. We can't take any more.
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BRITISH/AMERICAN
already / just / yet
Already and yet are usually used with the present perfect tense, but in AmE they can also be used with the simple past tense: I already did it. * Did you eat yet?
However, this is much more common in spoken English than in written and some Americans do not consider it acceptable, even in speech. The present perfect is more common in AmE and almost always used in BrE: I've already done it. * Have you eaten yet?
Just is mostly used with the perfect tenses in BrE and with the simple past in AmE: I've just had some bad news. (BrE) * I just got some bad news. (AmE)
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for already is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is already a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, already is tagged as adverb.
Does already appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — already appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
