wakeful
Americanadjective
-
unable to sleep; not sleeping; indisposed to sleep.
Excitement made the children wakeful.
-
characterized by absence of sleep.
a wakeful night.
- Antonyms:
- sleepful
-
watchful; alert; vigilant.
a wakeful foe.
adjective
-
unable or unwilling to sleep
-
sleepless
-
alert
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of wakeful
Explanation
Are you alert and restless at 4 am? Then you can say you're wakeful, or not able to sleep at all. You might as well get up and start your day. If you're wide awake, especially when you should be asleep, you're wakeful. A wakeful baby can be perfectly pleasant in the middle of the day but is a lot less fun after midnight. Many new parents spend weeks or months of wakeful nights, and even getting a new puppy can lead to a long, wakeful period of your life. Before it meant simply "marked by being awake," this adjective meant "diligent."
Vocabulary lists containing wakeful
Beowulf
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Lalani of the Distant Sea
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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.
It is difficult to adequately convey the difference between experiencing 16 wakeful hours per day and white-knuckling your way through a brutal 20.
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2026
Early morning light is detected by the suprachiasmatic gland, which sits above the optic nerves, and its instructions cause our bodies to stop melatonin production so we can feel wakeful throughout the day.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 17, 2022
For all of his relaxation, I was that wakeful.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2018
Jet lag occurs when a person travels across several time zones and feels sleepy during the day or wakeful at night.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
Now, weary of lying wakeful in the hot stuffiness of her overheated compartment, she got up and peered out.
From "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
