dawn
UK/dɔːn/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/doːn/
dawn verb: to begin to brighten with daylight.
Verb
dawn (third-person singular simple present dawns, present participle dawning, simple past and past participle dawned)
- To begin to brighten with daylight.
- A new day dawns.
- In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene[…]to see the sepulchre.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew xxviii:1
- To start to appear or become obvious.
- 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.
- Synonyms:
- glimpse
- To begin to give promise; to begin to appear or to expand.
- when life awakes, and dawns at every line1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC
- in dawning youth1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
Noun
dawn (countable and uncountable, plural dawns)
- The morning twilight period immediately before sunrise.
- The rising of the sun.
- Every act of a Roman, from birth to death, from dawn to night, was controlled and supervised by some presiding deity.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 209
- Synonyms:
- break of dawn, break of day, daybreak, day-dawn, dayspring, sunrise
- The time when the sun rises.
- She rose before dawn to meet the train.
- The platoon braced itself for the dawn offensive.
- Synonyms:
- break of dawn, break of day, crack of dawn, daybreak, day-dawn, dayspring, sunrise
- The earliest phase of something.
- The dawn of civilization didn't imply twilight of barbarity.
- In the Edinburgh area, Leith and neighbouring Granton have only one terminal station where formerly there were four, and the long-established ferry from Granton to Burntisland, the history of which stretches back to the dawn of Scottish railways, is no more.1958 July, J. P. Wilson, “Scottish Soliloquy”, in Railway Magazine, page 495
Proper noun capitalized: Dawn
Dawn
- A female given name from English, sometimes given to a girl born at dawn.
- "Thomas, if it's a boy," she said, "after my uncle. But if it's a girl I'd like something fancy for a first name."
"What about Dawn?" she said. "I like the sound of Dawn. Then Mary for a second name. Dawn Mary Parker, it sounds sweet."1958, MurielSpark, The Go-away Bird: With Other Stories, Macmillan 1958, page 20 ("The Black Madonna") - Dawn, go away, I’m no good for you.1964 Bob Gaudio - Sandy Linzer, Dawn (a song)
- "Thomas, if it's a boy," she said, "after my uncle. But if it's a girl I'd like something fancy for a first name."
dawn meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
dawn in Hindi
- to begin to brighten with daylight
- उषा uṣā
- morning twilight period
- उषा uṣā, ऊषा ūṣā, प्रभात prabhāt, तड़का taṛkā, सवेरा saverā, सुबह subah
- rising of the sun
- प्रभात prabhāt, भोर bhor, सूर्योदय sūryoday
- time of sunrise
- भोर bhor, प्रत्युष pratyuṣ
dawn in Tamil
- to begin to brighten with daylight
- உதி uti, விடி viṭi, எழு eḻu
- to start to appear, to be realized
- தோன்று tōṉṟu, தெரி teri
- morning twilight period
- வைகறை vaikaṟai, எழுபோது eḻupōtu
- rising of the sun
- உதிப்பு utippu, விடியல் viṭiyal
dawn in Marathi
- to begin to brighten with daylight
- पहाट pahāṭ
dawn in Urdu
- morning twilight period
- سحر sahr, سویرا saverā, تڑکا taṛkā, صبح subah, اشا uṣā, اشراق išrāq
More languagesFewer languages
- dawn in Bengali
- ভোর bhōr, প্রভাত probhat, ফজর phojor, প্রাতঃকাল pratoḥkal
- dawn in Telugu
- తెల్లారు tellāru, ప్రభాతము prabhātamu, ప్రొద్దు proddu
- dawn in Malayalam
- പുലരി pulari
- dawn in Kannada
- ಹಿಂಗತ್ತಲೆ, ಸುಸಿಲು, ಪೊಗಸು, ಮುಂಬೆಳಗು
- dawn in Punjabi
- ਤੜਕਾ taṛkā, ਝਲਾਂਗ jhalāṅg, ਫ਼ਜਰ fajar, ਲੋ lo
- dawn in Gujarati
- પરોઢ paroḍh, ઉષા uṣā, ફજર phajar, પહો paho
- dawn in Odia
- ଭୋର bhora
- dawn in Sanskrit
- उषस् uṣas, उषा uṣā, ऊषा ūṣā, प्रभात prabhāta
- dawn in Assamese
- কাহিলিপুৱা kahilipua, দোকমোকালি dükmükali, পুৱতি নিশা puti nixa
- dawn in Tagalog
- bukang-liwayway
- dawn in Arabic
- فَجْر fajr, شُرُوق šurūq, فَلَق falaq, مَشْرِق mašriq
- dawn in Malay
- subuh
- dawn in Indonesian
- subuh, fajar
- dawn in Persian
- سپیدهدم sepide-dam, پگاه pegâh, سپیده sepide, پرگاس pargâs
- dawn in Thai
- ย่ำรุ่ง yâm-rûng, เช้ามืด cháao-mʉ̂ʉt
- dawn in Vietnamese
- bình minh, rạng đông
- dawn in Myanmar
- အရုဏ်တက် a.runtak, အရုဏ် a.run
Examples of dawn in a sentence
- Leave the time of war behind and let a time of peace dawn!2023 February 3, Pope Francis, “Address of His Holiness”, in Apostolic Journey of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Democratic Republic of...
- The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent.2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
Synonyms of dawn
- glimpse
- break of dawn
- break of day
- daybreak
- day-dawn
- dayspring
- sunrise
- crack of dawn
- beginning
- onset
14 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of dawn
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | dawns |
| present participle | dawning |
| past participle | dawned |
| past | dawned |
| Noun | |
| plural | dawns |
Origin of dawn
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.
From dawn.
Words formed from dawn
- Dawna
- dawn on
- crack of dawn
- dawn ape
- dawn choir
- dawn chorus
- dawn horse
- dawnless
- dawnlight
- dawnlike
- dawn man
- dawn of a new day
- dawn of time
- dawn patrol
- dawn poppy
- dawn prayer
- dawn raid
- dawn redwood
- dawnside
- dawn stone
- dawn tetria
- dawntime
- dawn upon
- dawny
- false dawn
- foredawn
- Golden Dawn
- handbags at dawn
- it is always darkest before the dawn
- it is always darkest just before the dawn
- it is darkest before the dawn
- it is darkest just before the dawn
- new dawn
- northern dawn
- pistols at dawn
- predawn
- sundawn
- the darkest hour is always just before the dawn
- the darkest hour is just before the dawn
- yesterdawn
Phrases with dawn
- dawn raids
- dawn choirs
- dawn horses
- dawn patrols
- dawn poppies
- dawn prayers
- break of dawn
- dawn choruses
- dawn redwoods
- cracks of dawn
- Son of the Dawn
- ass crack of dawn
1 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with dawn
Questions about dawn
- What does dawn mean?
- Dawn means to begin to brighten with daylight.
- What is dawn in Hindi?
- Dawn in Hindi is उषा (uṣā), प्रभात (prabhāt), भोर (bhor). See Dawn meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use dawn in a sentence?
- Leave the time of war behind and let a time of peace dawn!
- What part of speech is dawn?
- Dawn can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce dawn?
- Dawn is pronounced /dɔːn/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of dawn?
- The past tense of dawn is dawned.
Words near dawn in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dawn (page history and authors); Dawn (page history and authors); പുലരി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); dawn (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ઉષા (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଭୋର (Odia) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-dawn.ogg.
Cite this entry: “dawn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dawn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.