What does "dawn" mean?

The morning twilight period immediately before sunrise.

What is a synonym for "dawn"?

Common synonyms include: break of day, daybreak, dayspring, sunrise, beginning, cockcrow.

//dɔːn// name, noun, verb

name, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Noun

1
The morning twilight period immediately before sunrise. uncountable
2
the earliest period wordnet
3
The rising of the sun. countable
"Every act of a Roman, from birth to death, from dawn to night, was controlled and supervised by some presiding deity."
4
the first light of day wordnet
5
The time when the sun rises. uncountable
"She rose before dawn to meet the train."

Show 2 more definitions

6
an opening time period wordnet
7
The earliest phase of something. uncountable
"The dawn of civilization didn't imply twilight of barbarity."

Verb

1
To begin to brighten with daylight. intransitive
"A new day dawns."
2
become light wordnet
3
To start to appear or become obvious. figuratively, intransitive
"I don’t want to be there when the truth dawns on him."
4
become clear or enter one's consciousness or emotions wordnet
5
To begin to give promise; to begin to appear or to expand. figuratively, intransitive
"when life awakes, and dawns at every line"

Show 1 more definition

Proper Noun

1
A female given name from English sometimes given to a girl born at that time of day.
""Thomas, if it's a boy," she said, "after my uncle. But if it's a girl I'd like something fancy for a first name." "What about Dawn?" she said. "I like the sound of Dawn. Then Mary for a second name. Dawn Mary Parker, it sounds sweet.""

"I got along so well with the guy sitting next to me at the pub that we ended up drinking together till dawn."

Etymology 1

From Middle English dawnen, either a back-formation from dawnynge or a modification of dawen (“to dawn”) after it. The noun is from the verb.

Etymology 2

From dawn.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.