Great Awakening

American  

noun

1. the series of religious revivals among Protestants in the American colonies, especially in New England, lasting from about 1725 to 1770.

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Etymology

Origin of Great Awakening

An Americanism dating back to 1730–40

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Great Awakening

Protestant religious revivalism swept across the country during the first few decades of the 19th century in what was known as the Second Great Awakening.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

The original Great Awakening was a series of 18th- and 19th-century religious revivals that swept through the American colonies and states, establishing evangelical Christianity as an enduring and powerful force in the country.

From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2024

Mormonism was born through the spiritual quest of Joseph Smith, who was raised amid America's Second Great Awakening during the early 1800s, a period of Christian revivals.

From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2023

The concept has a history stretching back to at least the First Great Awakening in 18th-century New England, when crowds of newly fervent Protestants gathered to hear vivid extemporaneous sermons by pastors like Jonathan Edwards.

From New York Times ● Feb. 23, 2023

Protestant sects, in the sixteenth century, 111; on the American frontier, 185 ff.; effect of the Great Awakening on, 188 ff.

From Beginnings of the American People by William E. Dodd