Question

Is it 'at earliest' or 'at the earliest'? Example sentence: "The package will be delivered on the fifth of December at (the) earliest."

Answer 1

I can't find a hard rule to show you but in this case I believe it is "at the earliest." I thing if the earliest was modifying something such as the word convenience then the "the" would be dropped.

Answer 2

At the earliest

Answer 3

Earliest is a superlative adjective. Superlatives are used to compare more than two things. They usually use "the", because there is only one superlative.

"Bill is tall, Frank is taller, But John is the tallest."

Answer 4

at the earliest (: