autumn

American  

[aw-tuhm] / ˈɔ təm /

noun

1. the season between summer and winter; fall. In the Northern Hemisphere it is from the September equinox to the December solstice; in the Southern Hemisphere it is from the March equinox to the June solstice.

2. a time of full maturity, especially the late stages of full maturity or, sometimes, the early stages of decline.

   to be in the autumn of one's life.

---

autumn British  

/ ˈɔːtəm /

noun

1. (sometimes capital)

   1. Also called (esp US): fall.  the season of the year between summer and winter, astronomically from the September equinox to the December solstice in the N hemisphere and from the March equinox to the June solstice in the S hemisphere

   2. ( as modifier )

      autumn leaves

2. a period of late maturity, esp one followed by a decline

---

Etymology

Origin of autumn

1325–75; < Latin autumnus; replacing Middle English autumpne < Middle French autompne < Latin

Explanation

Autumn is the season after summer, when leaves fall from trees. It's also the season when the days get shorter and colder, and everything turns brown and drab, but people like it anyway, for the cocoa and cider, probably. Autumn is the third season of the year, coming after summer and before winter, and coinciding with the dropping of leaves from the trees as they go into a winter rest, which is why it's also called fall. We also use autumn metaphorically to talk about the seasons of a person's life, like that luminous older actress in the autumn of her career: she's not yet playing roles in nursing homes, but neither is she scampering around in bikinis.

Example Sentences

In the latest prediction from the ECMWF, more than half of their forecast models suggest a temperature of over 2.5C by the autumn.

From BBC • May 14, 2026

I scraped the whole mixture into my mini blender with a splash of water and blitzed it into a deep orange paste the color of late autumn leaves or a very expensive velvet couch.

From Salon • May 12, 2026

In the autumn of 1939, Igor Stravinsky stepped onto a stage at Harvard—not to conduct, but to talk.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 11, 2026

The rainy season had passed and the chill of autumn was setting in.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 24, 2000

Then, just as reluctantly as the last leaf of autumn falls off a desiccated branch, Juanita’s hand slackened and fell away from mine.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall