dawn

1 of 2

verb

ˈdȯn How to pronounce dawn (audio)
ˈdän
dawned; dawning; dawns

intransitive verb

1
: to begin to grow light as the sun rises
waited for the day to dawn
2
: to begin to appear or develop
a new era is dawning
3
: to begin to be perceived or understood
the truth finally dawned on us

dawn

2 of 2

noun

1
: the first appearance of light in the morning followed by sunrise
danced till dawn
at the crack of dawn
Almost before the first faint sign of dawn appeared she arose again …Thomas Hardy
2
: beginning
the dawn of the space age

Examples of dawn in a Sentence

Verb They waited for the day to dawn. A new age is dawning. Noun as dawn breaks over the city Winter brings late dawns and early sunsets.
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
Saturday March 9 dawned as a gusty gray morning in Charleston, S.C. with thunderstorms rolling across the historic city and daggers of lightening lighting up the skies. Shawn Tully, Fortune, 16 Mar. 2024 Pink connotes dawn, the promise of coming daylight. Lorraine Berry, Los Angeles Times, 11 Mar. 2024 Perhaps a dawning understanding that, for the most part, moms aren’t the primary problem with sons is beginning to take hold. Mark Harris Keita Morimoto, New York Times, 27 Feb. 2024 The flight represents the dawning commercial space age and is a vital step in NASA’s goal of putting astronauts back on the moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972. Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, 8 Jan. 2024 But Americans will still have to deal with unaffordable housing But a slightly brighter season is dawning this spring. Anna Bahney, CNN, 11 Feb. 2024 The festivities on Sunday will include a special banner hanging from the 24 palm trees in front of Oracle Park, the Ferry Building and Salesforce Tower dawned in orange and black lights, and the Oracle Park scoreboard commemorating 2.4.24. Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 1 Feb. 2024 Along with its vein of absurdist and juvenile humor, there's a core of sweetness and dawning decency that will mark much of the Adam Sandler canon. Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 23 Oct. 2023 Claudine Gay, president of Harvard, resigned as the new year dawned, under mounting accusations of plagiarism going back to her graduate student days. Anemona Hartocollis, New York Times, 14 Jan. 2024
Noun
The raid on Shifa Hospital began before dawn, when Israeli forces backed by tanks and artillery surrounded the complex and troops stormed into a number of buildings. Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magdy and Tia Goldenberg, Quartz, 19 Mar. 2024 One Monday just before dawn, the task force’s detectives pulled up to a bungalow in a residential neighborhood near a freeway. Paige Williams, The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2024 From the first locomotives to the dawn of aviation, our quest to travel faster has consistently reshaped society. Sassie Duggleby, Fortune, 15 Mar. 2024 By dawn several dozen men regrouped by some cottages on the edge of the city. Oleksandr Chubko Lynsey Addario, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2024 By the dawn of the nineties, the culture had only doubled down on the worship of wealth, beauty, and glamour that dominated the eighties. Jason Sheeler, Peoplemag, 5 Mar. 2024 Fort Worth should expect our sky to look like dusk or dawn in the middle of the afternoon. Ella Gonzales, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 5 Mar. 2024 At the same time, employee behavior has been monitored on work systems since the dawn of email. Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN, 4 Mar. 2024 The arrival of Hanuš, a mystifying creature from the dawn of time with Paul Dano lending his voice, offers Jakub a glimmer of hope. Bonnie & Clyde (1967) Arthur Penn's Bonnie & Clyde, starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, is a landmark film in American cinema that redefined the crime genre. Travis Bean, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dawn.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb and Noun

Middle English, probably back-formation from dawning daybreak, alteration of dawing, from Old English dagung, from dagian — see daw entry 1

First Known Use

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of dawn was in the 15th century

Dictionary Entries Near dawn

Cite this Entry

“Dawn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dawn. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

dawn

1 of 2 verb
ˈdȯn How to pronounce dawn (audio)
ˈdän
1
: to begin to grow light as the sun rises
waited for the day to dawn
2
: to begin to appear or develop
a smile dawned on her face
3
: to begin to be understood
the solution dawned on him

dawn

2 of 2 noun
1
: the first appearance of light in the morning
2
: a first appearance : beginning
the dawn of a new age

More from Merriam-Webster on dawn

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