dawn

A time of day noun

29 AUG 2026

0/5 word facts discovered

/dɔːn/, /dɑːn/

noun

the first appearance of light in the morning followed by sunrise; beginning

the period of first natural light of the morning, or the figurative beginning of an event

the first appearance of light in the morning followed by sunrise; beginning

Another pillar of light ascended to the floating dawn clouds.

The surprisingly eventful life of dawn
Before dawn was a noun, it was an action. Around 1200, Middle English dauen meant “to become day” or “to grow light in the morning.” It descended through Old English dagung and dagian, relatives of the word day.

By the 1590s, English had turned the action into the familiar noun for first daylight. Earlier speakers had used luminous alternatives including dayspring, day-gleam, and dawning. The figurative “beginning of an era” sense appeared in the 1630s, letting every new age borrow the morning’s first light.
The Scrabble score is 8 points: D = 2, A = 1, W = 4, and N = 1.
4 letters and 1 syllable.
Merriam-Webster records two common American pronunciations: /dɔːn/ and /dɑːn/.
Weather observers recognize three dawn thresholds: astronomical at 18°, nautical at 12°, and civil at 6° below the horizon.
The sense “begin to develop” appeared by 1717; an idea could “dawn on” someone by 1852.
Dawn was a top-25 name for American girls born from 1966 through 1975.
The example sentence appears in Gates of Okinawa (2024). Read Gates of Okinawa

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