Past tense of dawn
regular verb
The past tense of dawn is dawned. The past participle is also dawned.
Forms of dawn
| Base form (V1) | dawn /dɔːn/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | dawned |
| Past participle (V3) | dawned |
| Present participle | dawning /ˈdɔːnɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | dawns |
Dawned in a sentence
- The realization dawned on him that few would pass that final exam.
- He looked at her for ten full minutes before recognition dawned.From the entry recognition
- It finally dawned on him that he could automate the process instead of doing it by hand each time.From the entry dawn on
- The surreality of the crash scene dawned upon him only when he saw a holy figure in the smoke.From the entry surreality
- The reality of the crash scene on TV dawned upon him only when he saw the victim was no actor but his friend.From the entry reality
Meaning of dawn
- verb To begin to brighten with daylight.
- verb To start to appear or become obvious.
- verb To begin to give promise; to begin to appear or to expand.
Questions about the past tense of dawn
- What is the past tense of dawn?
- The past tense of dawn is dawned.
- What is the past participle of dawn?
- The past participle of dawn is dawned.
- Is dawn a regular or irregular verb?
- Dawn is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dawn (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of dawn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/dawn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.