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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

dawn.

To begin to brighten with daylight.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/dɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/doːn/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/dɔn//dɑn/cot-caught-merger
  1. To begin to brighten with daylight.

    intransitive
    A new day dawns.
  2. To start to appear or become obvious.

    figuratively · intransitive
    I don’t want to be there when the truth dawns on him.
    The realization dawned on him that few would pass that final exam.
  3. To begin to give promise; to begin to appear or to expand.

    figuratively · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English dawnen, either a back-formation from dawnynge or a modification of dawen (“to dawn”) after it. The noun is from the verb.

noun/dɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/doːn/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/dɔn//dɑn/cot-caught-merger
  1. The morning twilight period immediately before sunrise.

    uncountable
  2. The rising of the sun.

    countable
  3. The time when the sun rises.

    uncountable
    She rose before dawn to meet the train.
    The platoon braced itself for the dawn offensive.
  4. The earliest phase of something.

    uncountable
    The dawn of civilization didn't imply twilight of barbarity.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English dawnen, either a back-formation from dawnynge or a modification of dawen (“to dawn”) after it. The noun is from the verb.

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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.