- [uncountable, countable] the time of day when light first appears synonym daybreak
- at dawn They start work at dawn.
- It's almost dawn.
- We arrived in Sydney as dawn broke (= as the first light could be seen).
- I woke up just before dawn.
- summer’s early dawns
- He works from dawn till dusk (= from morning till night).
- The plane took off, leaving London behind in a blue-grey dawn.
Extra ExamplesTopics Timec1- Dawn was breaking over the valley.
- She awoke to another glorious dawn.
- He always got up to greet the dawn.
- Be prepared for cold nights and foggy dawns in the mountains next week.
- Ammunition was seized during a dawn raid on the house.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- grey/gray
- early
- greet
- see
- watch
- …
- break
- come
- come up
- …
- light
- sky
- chorus
- …
- at dawn
- before dawn
- by dawn
- …
- (at) the crack of dawn
- from dawn to dusk
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- [singular] dawn (of something) the beginning or first signs of something
- the dawn of civilization/time/history
- Peace marked a new dawn in the country's history.
- the dawn of a golden age in European art
Extra Examples- We are seeing the dawn of a new era.
- This sudden success may prove to be a false dawn.
- This appointment marked the dawn of a productive era in her scientific career.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- false
- new
- mark
- signal
- see
- …
- dawn of
Word Originlate 15th cent. (as a verb): back-formation from Middle English dawning alteration of earlier dawing, from Old English dagian ‘to dawn’, of Germanic origin.
Idioms
See dawn in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee dawn in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishat the crack of dawn
- (informal) very early in the morning
- I have to get up at the crack of dawn.
break of day/dawn
- (literary) the moment in the early hours of the morning when it begins to get light
Check pronunciation:
dawn