# dawning

Pronunciation: say "DAW-ning" /ˈdɔːnɪŋ/

## Verb

1. Present participle and gerund of dawn. — present participle and gerund of dawn
   - Simple: The -ing form of dawn. Use it after am, is, are, was or were, or to name the action.
   - _Light was already dawning when the fishermen pushed off from shore._
   - _The truth was slowly dawning on him as the meeting went on._

## Noun

2. The first stages or earliest signs of something coming into being.
   - Simple: The first early signs that something is starting to happen.
   - _The dawning of a new era brought hope to the struggling town._
   - _Historians point to that election as the dawning of modern politics._
3. The first appearance of daylight in the morning; daybreak. *(literary)*
   - Simple: The early morning time when the sun first brings light to the sky.
   - _By the dawning, the pilgrims had already climbed halfway up the hill._
   - _She loved the hush of the dawning, when the whole world seemed to hold its breath._

## Origin

From Middle English dawnynge, an alteration of dawing, influenced by North Germanic cognates such as Swedish and Danish dagning. It is related to daw ("to dawn").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/dawning (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).