awe
/ɔː/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/oː/
awe noun: a feeling of fear and reverence.
Noun (1)
awe (usually uncountable, plural awes)
- A feeling of fear and reverence.
- Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 19 Feb 2013, page 172
- A feeling of amazement.
- For several minutes no one spoke; I think they must each have been as overcome by awe as was I. All about us was a flora and fauna as strange and wonderful to us as might have been those upon a distant planet had we suddenly been miraculously transported through ether to an unknown world.1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor...
- In 1825, the first public railway carried passengers across the English countryside, setting in motion not just an engineering revolution, but an industrial one too. Imagine the awe and excitement of those first passengers as they boarded the train, unaware that they were witnessing the dawn of a...2025 October 1, Richard Evans, “The value of the railway effect”, in RAIL, number 1045, page 58
- Power to inspire awe.
Verb
awe (third-person singular simple present awes, present participle awing or aweing, simple past and past participle awed)
- To inspire fear and reverence in.
- That large room had always awed Ivor: even as a child he had never wanted to play in it, for all that it was so limitless, the parquet floor so vast and shiny and unencumbered, the windows so wide and light with the fairy expanse of Kensington Gardens.1922, Michael Arlen, “1/1/3”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days
- To control by inspiring dread.
- While a sense of outrage is the only rational response to atrocity, if that outrage is maintained at too high a level over too long a time it can generate feelings of impotence, as we permit ourselves to be awed by this irrational act of violence.1982 August 21, Bob Nelson, “Harnessing Our Anger”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 6, page 5
Noun (2)
awe (plural awes)
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Awe
Awe (countable and uncountable, plural Awes)
- A surname.
- A short river between Loch Awe and Loch Etive, Argyll and Bute council area, Scotland; in full, the River Awe.
- For nearly four miles, between Loch Awe and Taynuilt, the Callander and Oban section of the L.M.S.R. runs through the Pass of Brander, on the lower slopes of Ben Cruachan, beside the swift-flowing River Awe.1947 May and June, “Notes and News: Derailment in the Pass of Brander, L.M.S.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 181
Proper noun (2) capitalized: AWE
AWE
- The station code of AsiaWorld–Expo in Hong Kong.
awe meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
awe in Hindi
- awe, dread
- धाक dhāk
awe in Tamil
- மதிப்பச்சம், வீறச்சம்
awe in Urdu
- awe
- دہشت dahśat, ڈر ḍar, تیج tej
awe in Bengali
- শ্রদ্ধামিশ্রিত ভয়, বিস্ময়
More languagesFewer languages
- awe in Malayalam
- ഭയഭക്തി, അച്ചടക്കത്തോടെയുളള ഭയം, അമ്പരപ്പ്, സംഭ്രമം
- awe in Kannada
- ಬೆರಗು, ಅಕ್ಕಜ
- awe in Arabic
- هَيْبَة hayba, ذُهُول ḏuhūl
- awe in Persian
- تعجب, نهازیدن nehâzidan
Examples of awe in a sentence
- She went god mode and effortlessly defeated her opponents, leaving them in awe of her superhuman skills.
- The people stared in awe at the magnificently colored flame tree.
- The limitlessness of the heavens awes us.
Synonyms of awe
Forms of awe
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | awes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | awes |
| present participle | awing |
| present participle | aweing |
| past participle | awed |
| past | awed |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Awes |
Origin of awe
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.
Borrowed from French auve.
Words formed from awe
Phrases with awe
Words that rhyme with awe
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about awe
- What does awe mean?
- Awe means a feeling of fear and reverence.
- What is awe in Hindi?
- Awe in Hindi is धाक (dhāk). See Awe meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is awe?
- Awe can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce awe?
- Awe is pronounced /ɔː/ (UK).
- What is the plural of awe?
- The plural of awe is awes.
Words near awe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: awe (page history and authors); Awe (page history and authors); AWE (page history and authors); धाक (Hindi) (page history and authors); awe (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); تیج (Urdu) (page history and authors); awe (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); awe (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); awe (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-awe.ogg, en-us-awe.ogg.
Cite this entry: “awe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/awe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.