dawn
noun
the first appearance of daylight in the morning.
dawn
1 American
[dawn]
/ dɔn /
noun
-
dawns
plural
verb (used without object)
-
dawns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dawned,
past participle, past
-
dawning
present participle
Dawn
2
American
[dawn]
/ dɔn /
noun
dawn
British
/ dɔːn /
noun
-
daybreak; sunrise
-
the sky when light first appears in the morning
-
the beginning of something
verb
-
to begin to grow light after the night
-
to begin to develop, appear, or expand
-
to begin to become apparent (to)
dawn
Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
dawnsimple
-
dawnssimple
-
have dawnedperfect
-
has dawnedperfect
-
am dawningprogressive
-
are dawningprogressive
-
is dawningprogressive
-
have been dawningperfect progressive
-
has been dawningperfect progressive
Past
-
dawnedsimple
-
had dawnedperfect
-
was dawningprogressive
-
were dawningprogressive
-
had been dawningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dawn
First recorded before 1150; Middle English dawen (verb), Old English dagian, derivative of dæg day; akin to Old Norse daga, Middle Dutch, Middle Low German dagen, Old High German tagēn
Explanation
The noun dawn refers to the first light of day, or the first time period, like the dawn of a new era, which occurs when a new president takes office. Not just the beginning of a day, the noun dawn can refer to any beginning, like the dawn of the Internet era. As a verb, dawn can mean "become light" or "become clear," like when it dawns on you that you left an important paper at home today. In that case, you can suddenly see what you did wrong, like at the dawn of a new day, when it is no longer dark and you can see, literally.
Vocabulary lists containing dawn
First-Name Basis: Words That Are Also Names
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The dodo may have followed a more flexible daily schedule, with activity possibly extending into dawn and dusk.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 9, 2026
The traps are laid in the afternoon and picked up the following morning, allowing them to collect mosquitoes at dusk and dawn, when the insects are most active.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
Jaber Abed, 33, said he and his family had fled their tent next to the hospital at dawn.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
These were officials from the International Testing Agency, and they were there before dawn to carry out a highly unusual doping control.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
It stopped snowing during the night and the gray dawn was quiet.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
"These are ridiculous restrictions and are totally unacceptable," said Zaffar Abbas, editor of Dawn newspaper.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
Travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson: If I had a dollar for every time someone said, “How do I get a job like yours?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Our travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson tested the newest Miami outpost of PS, a private luxury terminal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
“Condominiums remain an important pathway to homeownership, but buyers should look beyond the purchase price,” said Dawn Bauman, CEO of the Community Associations Institute, a membership organization for community associations.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
"If Dawn has her calf while I am away, they will help her. They promised me."
From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda
They also suggest that the disinflation earlier this year may have been another of the false dawns that have typified recent Fed performance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026
In some sense, this is akin to the realization that dawns on most people regarding their parents: Before we came along, they had a whole identity that had nothing to do with us.
From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2026
Investors burned by false dawns in China’s property market are reluctant to reprice assets without unmistakable signals.
From Barron's ● Dec. 31, 2025
Players past and present alike realise there have been too many promises of false dawns that have disappeared almost immediately to take anything for granted.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2025
It dawns on me that I haven't been very nice to Peeta today.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
“Suddenly, they referred to me as they used to refer to my father. Something dawned upon me: that I was the king now.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
And when Folarin arrived a few weeks later, entering the world just hours before Independence Day dawned, he did so as an American citizen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026
As planting season dawned across South East Asia's rice fields, Suchart Piamsomboon, a 60-year-old farmer from Thailand's Chachoengsao province, went to the local shop for fertilisers.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2026
When it dawned on the teacher what was happening in broad daylight and in front of other motorists and pedestrians, her initial feeling was of disbelief.
From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2026
The morning of March 3, 1913, dawned to ideal conditions—cloudless skies, a light breeze, and temperatures expected to reach the mid-fifties.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
Graham Burnett, a history professor at Princeton University, sees "the dawning of an authentic movement," similar to the birth of the environmental movement in the 1960s, which led to landmark environmental protections.
From Barron's ● Apr. 22, 2026
This might be a dawning moment, when the golfing world realises that someone capable of winning a record-equalling 82 PGA Tour titles might not be the best qualified to shape its future.
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2026
It’s dawning on both the equity and bond markets that this conflict isn’t looking like a fleeting affair, said Amar Reganti, fixed-income strategist at Hartford Funds.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 5, 2026
The slowly dawning realization that this heavily tattooed white man named Teddy Swims was really going to pull off “Without You.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2026
He paused, staring at my lifted hands in the dawning light of morning.
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
