belatedly

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /bɪˈleɪtɪdli/ UK /bɪˈleɪtɪdli/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adv
later than should have been the case; tardily

He belatedly realized he had forgotten her birthday.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adv · later than should have been... tardily late overdue behindhand

Opposites

promptly early punctually

Word family

Related forms belated late

Etymology

From belated (be- + the past participle of late, 'overtaken by lateness') + the adverbial suffix -ly. Late is from Old English læt ('slow, tardy'), from Proto-Germanic *lataz.

be- Old English læt Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# belatedly

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adv
**IPA (US):** /bɪˈleɪtɪdli/
**IPA (UK):** /bɪˈleɪtɪdli/

## Meanings
1. later than should have been the case; tardily

## Examples
- He belatedly realized he had forgotten her birthday.

## Synonyms
- tardily
- late
- overdue
- behindhand

## Antonyms
- promptly
- early
- punctually

## Related Forms
- belated
- late

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: be-
- Root: læt

## Etymology
From belated (be- + the past participle of late, 'overtaken by lateness') + the adverbial suffix -ly. Late is from Old English læt ('slow, tardy'), from Proto-Germanic *lataz.

## AI Etymology
belatedly comes from belated (be- + the past participle of late, 'overtaken by lateness') + the adverbial suffix -ly. Late is from Old English læt ('slow, tardy'), from Proto-Germanic *lataz. Morphologically, the word is transparent: -ly is attached to the older base named in the history, so the modern form packages an inherited or borrowed stem inside a later English derivative. In modern use, the adverb sense is "later than should have been the case; tardily", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes related English forms such as belated, late, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary. The principal historical forms in the chain include Old English be-, Old English læt, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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