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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Beowulf vocabulary
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 2
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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 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
There was a brief return in a City shirt last September when he featured for the final seven minutes of a Carabao Cup tie victory at Huddersfield, but it proved to be a false dawn.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
“The Wizard of Oz” reminded viewers of the necessity for imagination and metaphor at the end of the Great Depression and dawn of a new war.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
The crickets and cicadas make a ceaseless, deafening buzz, coyotes cry mournfully in the distance, songbirds cheep and squawk at the first hint of dawn.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
Making those decisions wasn’t difficult as concerns grew over a cyclosporiasis outbreak that has sickened thousands nationwide, according to Dawn Brand Fluhler, the restaurant’s general manager.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 18, 2026
While Joel Beckett, who played Dawn Tinsley's fiancé Lee, and David Schaal, who played Glynn, also known as Taffy, spoke to BBC Radio Berkshire about what it was like to film the show.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 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
Columnist Dawn Gilbertson tried out TSA’s new attempt to ease those long security lines at the airport: a remote terminal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
Dawn Celeste turns the big camper in an arc and heads out.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
And so the chance has arrived at last, decades in the waiting, decades largely made up of frustration, false dawns and fatalism.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 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
Restoring Western supply chains will take time, and the rare-earths industry has seen false dawns before.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025
It dawns on you again that you’re hungry.
From "Goodbye Stranger" by Rebecca Stead
But as we drove further into the village it dawned on us just how many of the bright white Andalusian homes had seemingly been spared.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
But as the EV age dawned, helped by top-down policy such as generous subsidies, Chinese firms hit the throttle.
From Barron's ● Apr. 27, 2026
“It never dawned on me that four years later I’d be like, the murmur is bigger than it ever was,” Glannan said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
But it quickly dawned on her that this was not your typical find for a day trip to south Wales.
From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2026
But when it dawned on him that the FBI knew all about Operation Pastorius, he confessed.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
“There’s just a dawning understanding of broader American consciousness about caregiving and aging. It’s a massive infrastructure issue and economic issue that will impact all of us in some way.”
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 16, 2026
For all of us wondering when an ugly time will fade, the moment will resonate like a cautious, dawning hope.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2026
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
It even overwhelms his dawning understanding of Venice’s spreading cholera outbreak, as he concludes he would rather stay on vacation than save the boy—or himself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
There was no space left, and ten little ones still stood anxiously on the deck of the Ocarrion, realization dawning on their faces.
From "Dactyl Hill Squad" by Daniel José Older
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.
