Dawn

¹ American  

[dawn] / dɔn /

noun

1. a female given name.

---

dawn ² American  

[dawn] / dɔn /

noun

1. the first appearance of daylight in the morning.

   Dawn broke over the valley.

   Synonyms:

   sunrise, daybreak

   Antonyms:

   sunset

2. the beginning or rise of anything; advent.

   the dawn of civilization.

---

verb (used without object)

1. to begin to grow light in the morning.

   The day dawned with a cloudless sky.

2. to begin to open or develop.

3. to begin to be perceived (usually followed byon ).

   The idea dawned on him.

   Synonyms:

   break, occur, appear

dawn British  

/ dɔːn /

noun

1. daybreak; sunrise

2. the sky when light first appears in the morning

3. the beginning of something

---

verb

1. to begin to grow light after the night

2. to begin to develop, appear, or expand

3. to begin to become apparent (to)

dawn Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing dawn

• crack of dawn
• light dawned

---

Other Word Forms

• dawnlike adjective
• undawned adjective

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

Example Sentences

The mission was classified and the details played down in official records, to mitigate the risk of a direct conflict with the Soviets at the dawn of the Cold War.

From The Wall Street Journal

Vara’s moving account of her uncanny exchanges with a chatbot about her sister’s death became a viral sensation after it appeared in the Believer in 2021, at the dawn of our LLM-obsessed age.

From Los Angeles Times

That the sun revolves around the Earth explains dawn but renders astronomy impossible.

From The Wall Street Journal

Guards noticed the two men had fled from the Dijon prison before dawn.

From Barron's

It dawned on Mr Thompson that some of the advertised jobs simply didn't exist.

From BBC

Related Words

• dawning
• daybreak
• daylight
• morning