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PlainSpell

dawn

UK /dɔːn/verb, noun

dawn is spelled D-A-W-N: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,521st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Dawn, the name). People search “dawn vs don” about 40 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, dawn means “To begin to brighten with daylight” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in dawn?

Letters4: D-A-W-N
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing19 times per million words; the 4,521st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is dawn?

Dawn appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,521st most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Dawn, the name.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce dawn?

  • UK /dɔːn/
  • British /doːn/
  • /dɔn/

Dawn has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-dawn.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with dawn

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

dawn vs don40 G

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with dawn?

7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as dawn from its last stressed vowel (/ɔn/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: wand.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of dawn

  • dawns present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • dawning participle, present
  • dawned participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does dawn mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To begin to brighten with daylight.

    A new day dawns.

  2. 2

    To start to appear or become obvious.

    I don’t want to be there when the truth dawns on him.

  3. 3

    To begin to give promise; to begin to appear or to expand.

noun

  1. 1

    The morning twilight period immediately before sunrise.

  2. 2

    The rising of the sun.

  3. 3

    The time when the sun rises.

    She rose before dawn to meet the train.

  4. 4

    The earliest phase of something.

    The dawn of civilization didn't imply twilight of barbarity.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Dawn in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchse lever (to begin to brighten with daylight), naître (to start to appear, to be realized), aube (morning twilight period), lever du soleil (rising of the sun), aurore (time of sunrise)
Germandämmern, grauen, tagen (to begin to brighten with daylight), Morgendämmerung, Dämmerung, Morgengrauen (morning twilight period)
Portugueseamanhecer (to begin to brighten with daylight), aparecer, nascer (to start to appear, to be realized), alvorecer, alvorada, aurora (morning twilight period)
Spanishamanecer, alborear, aclarar, clarecer, quebrar albores (to begin to brighten with daylight), caer en cuenta (to start to appear, to be realized)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does dawn come from?

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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after dawn