🌸 Flowering late 🌱 Success late

late-blooming

4.8

Something that develops or succeeds later than usual

adjective
/leɪt ˈblumɪŋ/

: tardío en florecer

Their project was late-blooming, finally attracting users and funding five years after launch.
a late-blooming star

Examples

She is a late-blooming artist who found her passion in her forties.
After years of hard work, she finally found success as a late-blooming artist, gaining recognition in her fifties.
After decades of small exhibitions, the painter became a late-blooming star at fifty.
He was a late-blooming athlete who reached his peak performance in his thirties.
Many late-blooming writers publish their first books after retirement.
His late-blooming talent for cooking surprised everyone at the family reunion when he prepared the main dish.
Many people have late-blooming careers, discovering their passions and skills much later in life.

Synonyms

late-flowering

vslate-blooming

6.8

Show important talent or success later than usual in life

is an alternative phrasing with the same meaning used interchangeably in speech or writing

How Late

late-blooming

4.8

precocious

22 7.4

Surface Forms

late-blooming positive

Morphology

late-blooming = late + bloom (transparent) = late + bloom + ing

The figurative sense is a straightforward extension of 'late' + 'bloom' + '-ing' meaning 'developing or flourishing later than typical'.

Etymology

The word late-blooming joins late ('after the usual time') and bloom ('to flower'), and English uses 'bloom' for people or projects that grow or succeed. So, a late-blooming person or idea is one that develops or finds success later than most, like a flower that opens late.