- 1happening before the normal or expected time his premature death at the age of 37 Because of injury, her playing career came to a premature end in 2008.
- 2(of a birth or a baby) happening or being born before the normal length of pregnancy has been completed The baby was four weeks premature. a premature birth after only thirty weeks Wordfinderbabybaby, birth, child, dummy, feed, incubator, nappy, pram, premature, teethe See related entries: Birth
- 3happening or made too soon a premature conclusion/decision/judgement It is premature to talk about success at this stage. Word Originlate Middle English (in the sense ‘ripe, mature’): from Latin praematurus ‘very early’, from prae ‘before’ + maturus ‘ripe’.Extra examples She was born slightly premature. The decision proved premature. a very premature baby It is premature to talk about success at this stage. The incident brought the game to a premature conclusion. We should investigate further, rather than make a premature judgement.
premature
adjectiveBrE BrE//ˈpremətʃə(r)//; NAmE NAmE//ˌpriːməˈtʃʊr//, NAmE//ˌpriːməˈtʊr//
BirthCheck pronunciation: premature
