autumn
Americannoun
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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.
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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.
noun
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(sometimes capital)
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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
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( as modifier )
autumn leaves
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a period of late maturity, esp one followed by a decline
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
Vocabulary lists containing autumn
Figurative Language in King's "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)
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The Silent Treatment: Words Plagued by Silent Letters
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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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.
Her new husband has children of his own; Savannah, 15, and Isla, 14, from a previous relationship with Autumn Phillips.
From BBC • Jun. 7, 2026
County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, and their two children, Christine and Autumn, according to the family statement.
From Los Angeles Times • May 30, 2026
Autumn Nyiri, on the other hand, plans to start using the new D Line stops as soon as they open, and regularly.
From Los Angeles Times • May 8, 2026
From the Sunday Mail,1 October 1944, the headline reads: "Allies are poised for Autumn assault on Germany".
From BBC • May 4, 2026
I think hard, only to start blanking on any and all moments of genuine friendship between me and Autumn.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
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.
