ahead of schedule
30
2.7
- idiom
:
antes de lo previsto
- And even more impressive, the entire project was completed five months ahead of schedule.
- a year ahead of schedule
Examples
-
We are ahead of schedule.
-
The team finished the project two weeks ahead of schedule.
-
By all accounts, we're ahead of schedule.
-
We're going in ahead of schedule but I think we're fine.
-
So I believe I met your requirements ahead of schedule.
-
We're a few seconds ahead of schedule.
-
I was able to leave the nursing home after three weeks, more than two months ahead of schedule.
Fiction book (1992) -
As a result, the project came to fruition ahead of schedule and under budget, a remarkable achievement in any country.
Academic text (1997) -
In 2007, three years ahead of schedule, the agency's cap-and-trade program achieved its reduction targets.
Academic text (2009) -
Reconstruction continues increasingly ahead of schedule, which I attribute to a particularly robust esprit de corps among the troop.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Before a certain time in order to be ready
278
1.8
Before something happens or someone needs it
76
2.3
Earlier than planned or expected
Antonyms
How Timely
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'finished before the planned time' is directly and compositionally derived from 'ahead' (before/in front in time) + 'of' (linking) + 'schedule' (timetable), so a learner who knows the constituents can infer the phrase meaning. This temporal, prepositional pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows ordinary English composition, making it readily understandable at B1 level.
Etymology
Ahead of schedule comes from a simple picture: imagine a train or a project that is in front of its planned time and so is physically ahead of the schedule. So, when something is ahead of schedule, it is finished 'before the planned time'.