dawn
noun
the first appearance of daylight in the morning.
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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
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 2
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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.
See Examples For:
Again, this is a byproduct of war that dates back to the dawn of history.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
At the dawn of the internet, a select group of companies made a killing creating the equipment and business model for the system of glass strands bundled in cables, known as a fiber-optic network.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026
"At dawn, I still believed he survived. But he's still missing. I have lost hope."
From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026
We are at the dawn of recursive self-improvement, the moment when AI systems begin rewriting and improving their own code, causing an intelligence explosion, all without human intervention.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
At dawn someone called out that we were passing through the border town of Emmerich.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Formerly a Golden Dawn MP from 2012 to 2019, Kasidiaris was jailed for six years and worked off the rest of his sentence while behind bars.
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
To the story of a young man who arrives in New York’s Greenwich Village in the 1950s, Dawn Powell brings some of the elegance of an earlier era’s literary comedy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
Last month, Dawn Buckingham, who leads the General Land Office, sent a cease and desist letter to CBP and a federal contractor she said had illegally cleared GLO-owned land in Presidio County.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
The actress, who played receptionist Dawn Tinsley in the BBC sitcom The Office and whose father is comedian Jasper Carrott, was also applauded when asked for advice about getting into the film industry.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
Dawn hasn’t even broken, but I can still see the thick trees, lively greenery, bold architecture, and bright billboards that line the roads.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
Commercial-scale fusion power has had its share of false dawns, says Bechtel, futurist and professor of corporate innovation at the University of Notre Dame.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 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
Players past and present alike realise there have been too many promises of false dawns that have disappeared almost immediately to take anything for granted.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2025
Ayesha puts her hand over her mouth as this dawns on her.
From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed
When the 20th century dawned, nearly all of Asia was under the colonial boot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Eddie Hearn choked up mid-sentence during the final news conference when it dawned on him this was the last time he would experience a Taylor fight week.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
And if Snead was going to win himself a championship, it dawned on him that everything that had carried the Rams to this point would have to change.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
It also does not appear to have dawned on them that they are high-profile individuals, likely to attract attention, with footage finding its way to social media, as happened with Carse.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
As I continued down the street, it dawned on me that I was only blocks from the Arbeiter-Zeitung’s office.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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’s dawning on both the equity and bond markets that this conflict isn’t looking like a fleeting affair, said Amar Reganti, fixed-income strategist at Hartford Funds.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 5, 2026
The dawning of reality should be close at hand now for England players - 'maybe it's not you, Scotland, maybe it's us'.
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2026
Now, there’s a dawning realization that these tools can do far more.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
The ramifications of the ceremony were dawning on Dill, and he fought hard for the role.
From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee
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.
