warn
UK/wɔːn/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/woːn/
warn verb: to make (someone) aware of impending danger, evil, etc.
Verb
warn (third-person singular simple present warns, present participle warning, simple past and past participle warned)
- To make (someone) aware of impending danger, evil, etc.
- We waved a flag to warn the oncoming traffic about the accident.
- I phoned to warn him of the road closure.
- Synonyms:
- foretoken
- To notify or inform (someone, about something).
- I warned him he'd be getting a huge box of birthday presents from me.
- To summon (someone) to or inform of a formal meeting or duty.
- The sheriff warned her to appear in court.
- Committee being warned these following were absent or short …1741–2 March 4, Books of Keelman's Hospital, Newcastle, quoted in Northumberland Words (1894)
- To make a sound (e.g. clicking or whirring) indicating that it is about to strike or chime (an hour).
- Hark! the clock is warning ten;1885, Walter Towers, Poems, Songs, and Ballads, page 189
- No, not a word more, Andrew; the clock has warned for nine, and I am off.1885, Emma Marshall, In the East Country with Sir Thomas Browne, page 106
- To caution or admonish (someone) against unwise or unacceptable behaviour.
- He was warned against crossing the railway tracks at night.
- Don't let me catch you running in the corridor again, I warn you.
- To advise or order to go or stay away.
- A sign warns trespassers off/away from the site.
- To give warning.
- then Iames Cephas and Iohn [...] agreed with vs that we shuld preache amonge the Hethen and they amonge the Iewes: warnynge only that we shulde remember the poore.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Galatians :[9-10]
- She is his deepest innocence in spaces of bough and hay before wishes were given a different name to warn that they might not come true [...].1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow, Penguin, published 1995, page 177
Proper noun capitalized: Warn
Warn (plural Warns)
- A surname.
warn meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
warn in Hindi
- to make someone aware of impending danger
- चेताना cetānā
warn in Tamil
- எச்சரி
warn in Urdu
- to make someone aware of impending danger
- خَبَرْدار کَرْنا xabardār karnā
warn in Bengali
- সতর্ক করা, সাবধান করা
More languagesFewer languages
- warn in Telugu
- హెచ్చరించు heccariñcu, చాటు cāṭu
- warn in Malayalam
- മുന്നറിയിപ്പ് നൽകുക munnaṟiyippŭ nalkuka
- warn in Kannada
- ಮುನ್ನೆಚ್ಚರಿಕೆ ಕೊಡು, ಎಚ್ಚರಿಸು, ಮುನ್ಸೂಚನೆ ಕೊಡು, ಎಚ್ಚಱಿಸು
- warn in Punjabi
- ਚੇਤਾਵਨੀ ਦੇਣ ਲਈ, ਚਿਤਾਵਨੀ ਦੇਣ ਲਈ
- warn in Gujarati
- ચેતવણી આપવા
- warn in Nepali
- जताउनु jatāunu
- warn in Tagalog
- ipababala, babalaan
- warn in Arabic
- حَذَّرَ ḥaḏḏara
- warn in Thai
- เตือน dtʉʉan
- warn in Vietnamese
- cảnh báo
- warn in Myanmar
- သတိပေး sa.ti.pe:
Examples of warn in a sentence
- The people had been invited to the funeral, or warnt, by a special messenger a few days before the funeral took place.1874, Walter Gregor, An Echo of the Olden Time from the North of Scotland, page 142:
- [...] the plaintiff fraudulently warned the meeting for November 15, giving only five days' notice [...]1889, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the [State of] Vermont, page 490:
- The clock warned, and the hands pointed to a few minutes before the hour.1902, Violet Jacob, The Sheep-Stealers, page 399:
- She warned that he was seriously thinking of withdrawing his offer to part the waters, ‘so that all you'll get at the Arabian Sea is a saltwater bath [...]’.1988, Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses, Picador, published 2000, page 496:
Synonyms of warn
Forms of warn
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | warns |
| present participle | warning |
| past participle | warned |
| past | warned |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Warns |
Origin of warn
From Middle English warnen, warnien (“to warn; admonish”), from Old English warnian (“to take heed; warn”), from Proto-Germanic *warnōną (“to warn; take heed”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to be aware; give heed”). Cognate with Dutch waarnen (obsolete), German Low German warnen, German warnen, Swedish varna, Icelandic varna.
Words formed from warn
Words that rhyme with warn
Questions about warn
- What does warn mean?
- Warn means to make (someone) aware of impending danger, evil, etc.
- What is warn in Hindi?
- Warn in Hindi is चेताना (cetānā). See Warn meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use warn in a sentence?
- The people had been invited to the funeral, or warnt, by a special messenger a few days before the funeral took place.
- What part of speech is warn?
- Warn can be a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce warn?
- Warn is pronounced /wɔːn/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of warn?
- The past tense of warn is warned.
Words near warn in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: warn (page history and authors); Warn (page history and authors); warn (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); warn (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); చాటు (Telugu) (page history and authors); warn (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); warn (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); warn (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); जताउनु (Nepali) (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-worn.ogg.
Cite this entry: “warn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/warn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.