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dew.

Any moisture from the atmosphere condensed by cool bodies upon their surfaces.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/d͡ʒuː//djuː//duː//dɪu̯/Canada, Wales
  1. Any moisture from the atmosphere condensed by cool bodies upon their surfaces.

    uncountable
  2. Moisture in the air that settles on plants, etc in the morning or evening, resulting in drops.

    uncountable
  3. An instance of such moisture settling on plants, etc.

    countable
    There was a heavy dew this morning.
  4. Anything that falls lightly and in a refreshing manner.

    countable · figuratively · uncountable
  5. An emblem of morning, or fresh vigour.

    countable · figuratively · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English dew, from Old English dēaw (“dew”), from Proto-West Germanic *dauw, from Proto-Germanic *dawwaz, *dawwą (“dew, moisture”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“smoke, haze”). Cognate with German Tau, Dutch dauw and Afrikaans dou. Doublet of dag.

verb/d͡ʒuː//djuː//duː//dɪu̯/Canada, Wales
  1. To wet with, or as if with, dew; to moisten.

    transitive
  2. To deposit dew.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English dewe, dewen, from Old English *dēawian, from Proto-West Germanic *dauwēn, from Proto-Germanic *dawwāną. Cognates include Saterland Frisian daue, German tauen and Dutch dauwen.

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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.