morning
Americannoun
adjective
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of or relating to morning.
the morning hours.
-
occurring, appearing, used, etc., in the morning.
a morning coffee break.
noun
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the first part of the day, ending at or around noon
-
sunrise; daybreak; dawn
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the beginning or early period
the morning of the world
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informal the aftereffects of excess, esp a hangover
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(modifier) of, used, or occurring in the morning
morning coffee
Usage
What is a basic definition of morning? Morning refers to the beginning of the day. Morning is used figuratively to refer to the beginning of anything. Morning is also used to describe something that involves or occurs during the morning. Depending on who you ask, the exact hours of the morning will be different. Generally speaking, morning begins either at sunrise or at midnight (12 a.m.) and ends at noon (12 p.m.).
- Real-life examples: People usually sleep at night and wake up in the morning. The sun rises in the morning. Roosters are known to crow during the morning when the sun comes up.
- Used in a sentence: I would rather sleep until noon than wake up early in the morning.
- Real-life examples: The first movies were made in the morning of the film industry. Babyhood is the morning of a human’s life.
- Used in a sentence: Archaeologists discovered artifacts left behind by people who lived during the morning of civilization.
- Real-life examples: A morning person likes being awake in the morning. A morning shower is taken in the early part of the day.
- Used in a sentence: Delivering the morning newspaper means waking up at 5 a.m.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of morning
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English; morn + -ing 1; modeled on evening
Explanation
Morning is the earliest part of the day. No matter what time you get up, morning ends at noon. Originally, in the 13th century, morning meant the time just before sunrise. Now, morning technically starts at 12:00am and lasts until 12:00pm. If you describe yourself as a "morning person," you like to get up early. Strangely enough, a "night person," who stays up very late might not go to bed until several early-morning hours have passed.
Vocabulary lists containing morning
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:
Residents drove 40 miles to a morning Superior Court hearing in the county seat of Hanford; the judge would later deny the injunction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Those who support keeping standard time also say there are health benefits from having more light in the morning, such as an improved sleep cycle.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
In Montreal, the sky turned yellow on Tuesday morning due to smoke from wildfires burning several hundred miles away in northern Quebec and northwestern Ontario.
From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026
The morning meeting at UC San Francisco kicked off with an hour of public comment focused on standardized testing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
One morning, Don Quixote, dressed in full armor, was riding along the beach.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
The change would mean darker mornings and later sunsets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
When possible, workers should shift their hours to the early mornings or nighttime.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
What time do you wake up on Monday mornings?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
He was born in Bosnia to Croatian parents and spent his childhood on the family farm there in a small village, helping to milk the cows in the mornings.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
However, as the days grew colder, in the mornings ice was starting to form on the pond’s surface, which later cracked and distorted the view.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
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.
