Sunrise

//ˈsʌnɹaɪz// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The time of day when the sun appears above the eastern horizon. countable, uncountable

    "I'll meet you at the docks at sunrise."

  2. 2
    the daily event of the sun rising above the horizon wordnet
  3. 3
    The change in color of the sky at dawn. countable, uncountable

    "Did you see the beautiful sunrise this morning?"

  4. 4
    atmospheric phenomena accompanying the daily appearance of the sun wordnet
  5. 5
    Any great awakening. countable, figuratively, uncountable

    "It was the sunrise of her spirit."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    the first light of day wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To phase in. transitive, uncommon

    "In the first type (upper left quadrant), alternative industrial movements (AIMs) focus on the sunrising of new technologies."

Adjective
  1. 1
    of an industry or technology; new and developing wordnet

Example

More examples

"Never lose sight of the importance of a beautiful sunrise, or watching your kids sleep, or the smell of rain. It's often the small things that really matter in life."

Etymology

From Middle English sonne-rys, sunne ryse, equivalent to sun + rise. Compare Middle English son risyng, sunne rijsyng, sonne-rysing (“sunrise”, literally “sun rising”).

Related phrases

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