awaken
Americanverb (used with or without object)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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awakensimple
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awakenssimple
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have awakenedperfect
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has awakenedperfect
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am awakeningprogressive
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are awakeningprogressive
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is awakeningprogressive
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have been awakeningperfect progressive
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has been awakeningperfect progressive
Past
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awakenedsimple
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had awakenedperfect
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was awakeningprogressive
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were awakeningprogressive
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had been awakeningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of awaken
before 900; Middle English awak ( e ) nen, Old English awæcnian earlier onwæcnian. See a- 1, waken
Explanation
To awaken someone is to wake them up. You might awaken your roommate accidentally by practicing your tap dance routine in the kitchen. You can awaken another person, and a noise or the smell of pancakes or a scary dream can all awaken you from a deep sleep. You can also use the verb awaken to describe what happens when you wake from sleep: "I awaken every morning with my pillow on the floor." A more figurative way to awaken is to arouse a certain feeling or awareness. For example, a sad movie can awaken melancholy feelings in the most cheerful person.
Vocabulary lists containing awaken
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:
"I knew we were a sleeping giant that we needed to awaken in some way."
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
"The pope is maybe the only person who can awaken the conscience a little bit of all the people who have harmed this territory," local worshipper Giuseppina De Francesco, 60, told AFP.
From Barron's ● May 23, 2026
It seemed to awaken a sense of the car’s potential.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
Here we are, 11 years later, still living in the surreality we first experienced on that day — like a nightmare from which we can’t awaken.
From Salon ● Apr. 21, 2026
The stonecutter waited for Amah to awaken before he started work.
From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin
The illusion awakens him to a new means of looking at “nature and culture, the given and the constructed,” wherein these supposed binaries collapse together and exist simultaneously.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
"We used to think of the time before the genome awakens as a period of chaos," explains Noura Maziak, lead author of the study.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 27, 2026
Glinda meanwhile has become the poster girl of the Wizard's regime -- a position that brings her privilege and popularity, but also awakens guilt and shame, stemming from her childhood.
From Barron's ● Nov. 18, 2025
What begins as a story of reinvention turns darkly operatic when their music awakens something hungry in the Delta night.
From Salon ● Oct. 27, 2025
Then this vital force is merely smoldering, awaiting the time to flare again into activity when spring awakens the insect world.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
"By putting your own life on the line, you awakened the conscience of an entire nation," Dipke, 30, said in a social media post, referring to Wangchuk.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Without realizing it, Kevin O’Leary may have awakened a new political uprising in Utah—one that could come back to bite the very lawmakers he partnered with for his latest moneymaking venture.
From Slate ● Jun. 1, 2026
Iranian attacks have awakened the Saudis to the vulnerability of their energy infrastructure as well as the desalination plants on which much of the kingdom depends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026
"He has awakened from an induced coma and is doing well under the circumstances."
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2026
The roar and chilliness of the dark water awakened my senses, and my heart constricted in my chest as I came up for air.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
"Worrying", "freefall" and "rude awakening" were all bandied around in the immediate aftermath of the club's heaviest ever two-legged European defeat as new boss Wouter Vrankcen's tenure got off to a rocky start.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
When he suddenly arrives, he shares with Izzy the revelation of his spiritual awakening.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
So the album represents a time in my life when I realized there’s a spiritual awakening that I had.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
Rasputin is in fact an ex-Green Beret from Buffalo, N.Y., named Patrick, but he had a religious awakening and now claims to be the reincarnated spirit of the notorious Russian mystic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Undaunted by the night’s scare, Oksi stood up and watched the awakening birds.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
