Meaning of soon in English

soon

adverb

/suːn/ us

/suːn/

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in or within a short time; before long; quickly:

She'll soon be here./She'll be here soon.

It will soon be impossible for foreigners to enter the country.

The sooner we leave, the sooner we'll get there.

soon after Soon after agreeing to go, she realized she'd made a mistake.

how soon How soon (= when) can we sign the contract?

the sooner the better "When would you like to meet?" "The sooner the better."

I couldn't get out of that place soon enough.

as soon as

at the same time or a very short time after:

As soon as I saw her, I knew there was something wrong.

as soon as possible

If you do something as soon as possible, you do it as quickly as you can:

We need the repairs done as soon as possible.

More examplesFewer examples

The school's winter break starts soon.
They were very keen to start work as soon as possible.
She'll soon be as tall as her mother.
We must meet for lunch soon.
Be patient! They'll be here soon.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

In the future & soon

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Grammar

Soon

Soon means ‘a short time after now’ and ‘a short time after a point in the past’. Like many other short adverbs, we can use it in front position, mid position or end position, though we don’t use it in end position when referring to the past: …

Idioms

no sooner ... than
no sooner said than done
see you soon
sooner or later
would (just) as soon

(Definition of soon from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

soon | American Dictionary

soon

adverb [ -er/-est only ]

/sun/

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in or within a short time; before long; quickly:

We’ll soon be there.

How soon (= When) can we sign the contract?

"When would you like to meet?" "The sooner the better."

Idiom

sooner or later

(Definition of soon from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of soon

soon

One knows very soon and very well that it must end, and how.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

At a political level, authoritarian planned economies that don't consider the randomness inherent in evolutionary processes are doomed, sooner or later, to failure.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

Chiefs were soon even unable to maintain local agricultural rituals.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Methodologies can be refined as soon as a change occurs in the market or in the organization of the company.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Activation of microglia places a load on the anabolic and catabolic machinery of the cells causing activated microglia to die sooner than non-activated cells.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

The efforts were soon abandoned for a watered-down version of no beef-eating and less drinking.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

When one sees the great and glorious fields of ice and snow one soon forgets the discomfort one have to put up with.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The nature of their commitment changed as soon as they entered the war and several times thereafter, depending on their success.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In practice, the ' sons of the customs ' would just as soon accept a personal offering (dash) in the coin of the realm.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Within two hours of confinement the first animal succumbed and others soon followed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Both large scale laser facilities designed to achieve ignition soon after 2010 are nearing completion.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We will have more information on these discs soon.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Once you are in the air and not sooner, spin back to the front.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

Irreconcilable differences between opposing factions soon emerged, sometimes producing a complete breakdown of co-operation.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Besides, we never listen to them ... we switch off as soon as they start.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of soon

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

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