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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

awe.

A feeling of fear and reverence.

3 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɔː/Received-Pronunciation[ɔ̝ː] ~ [o̞ː]Received-Pronunciation/oː/British, Southern, Standard[o̞ː] ~ [oː]British, Southern, Standard

  1. A feeling of fear and reverence.

    uncountable · usually

  2. A feeling of amazement.

    uncountable · usually

  3. Power to inspire awe.

    archaic · uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

From Middle English aw, awe, agh, awȝe, borrowed from Old Norse agi, from Proto-Germanic *agaz (“terror, dread”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʰ- (“to be upset, afraid”). Displaced native Middle English eye, eyȝe, ayȝe, eȝȝe, from Old English ege, æge (“fear, terror, dread”), from the same Proto-Germanic root.

verb/ɔː/Received-Pronunciation[ɔ̝ː] ~ [o̞ː]Received-Pronunciation/oː/British, Southern, Standard[o̞ː] ~ [oː]British, Southern, Standard

  1. To inspire fear and reverence in.

    transitive

  2. To control by inspiring dread.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English aw, awe, agh, awȝe, borrowed from Old Norse agi, from Proto-Germanic *agaz (“terror, dread”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʰ- (“to be upset, afraid”). Displaced native Middle English eye, eyȝe, ayȝe, eȝȝe, from Old English ege, æge (“fear, terror, dread”), from the same Proto-Germanic root.

noun/ɔː/Received-Pronunciation[ɔ̝ː] ~ [o̞ː]Received-Pronunciation/oː/British, Southern, Standard[o̞ː] ~ [oː]British, Southern, Standard

  1. A bucket (blade) attached to water wheels.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French auve.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.