autumn

American  

[aw-tuhm] / ˈɔ təm /

noun

autumns plural

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.

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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

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• autumns
  plural

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

See Examples For:

autumn autumns

The matter is likely to be a topic of conversation at the next Fifa Council meeting in the autumn and then around the Fifa Intercontinental Cup, featuring Champions League winners Paris St-Germain, in December.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

New psychological thriller The Rapture may have been set in a heatwave, but it certainly wasn't hot when actor Iwan Rheon was filming on location in south Wales last autumn.

From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026

Fora's Jonna Robertson, for her part, is counting on a seasonal redistribution, with trips to hotter countries taking place in spring or autumn, in order to avoid both overtourism and exhausting temperatures.

From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026

As Pilar mulls a potential change of plan her husband says next year they might move their annual trip to the spring or autumn.

From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026

Leafmeal, Gram said the charmed folk called it, when the autumn leaves started to shatter into dust.

From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish

The Russian leader also used a Chinese idiom to express to Xi how much he had missed him: “A day without you feels like three autumns have passed.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026

Tehran, located on the southern slopes of the Alborz Mountains, experiences hot, dry summers, sometimes rainy autumns and winters that can be harsh and snowy.

From Barron's ● Dec. 24, 2025

Just an hour and a half from Los Angeles there’s a mountain community where there are actual seasons: Warm summers, crisp autumns, snowy winters and resplendent springs complete with daffodils all around.

From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2024

In general, high-quality wines were associated with cooler, wetter winters; warmer, wetter springs; hot, dry summers; and cool, dry autumns.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2023

He had a wife, Nancy, and three children, and his own house, which he had built with his own hands, a small tight adobe that required mudding every two or three autumns.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols