DictionaryAI

sunrise

SaySUN-ryz/ˈsʌnɹaɪz/

Pluralsunrises

4 meanings of sunrise

Practice

  1. 1
    nouncountable or uncountable
    The time each morning at which the sun first becomes visible above the eastern horizon.

    The marathon began at sunrise, when the air was still cool.

    Fishermen set out from the dock well before sunrise each day.

    Similardawn, daybreak, sunup, daylight, cockcrow

    Oppositesunset, sundown

    Note

    The word is as plain as it looks: Middle English sonne-rys, sun plus rise, alongside a longer sonne-rysing, literally "sun rising". As a time of day it usually goes without an article: meet at sunrise, leave before sunrise. A sunrise you stop to admire is usually the display of color. Sunup is the homely synonym, and sparrow-fart is a slang one.

  2. 2
    nouncountable
    The shift in the sky's colors that occurs at dawn.

    A brilliant sunrise spread crimson and gold across the horizon.

    The painting captured a sunrise in delicate shades of rose and amber.

    Similardawn, daybreak

    Oppositesunset

  3. 3
    nounfigurativelycountable
    A great awakening: the figurative dawn of a new and hopeful period.

    Independence marked a sunrise for the young republic.

    The breakthrough promised a sunrise in medical research.

    Similardawn, awakening

    Oppositesunset

    Note

    Figurative use favors the pattern a sunrise of something, often sharpened with an emphatic very. Mrs. Hugh Fraser's Storied Italy (1915) has eyes lit with "a very sunrise of joy", and F. R. Chandler's The Story of Lake Geneva (1898) calls mid-June "a very sunrise of Nature". That very gives the phrase the warm, elevated tone of its period. The matching image for an ending is sunset.

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    verbraretransitive
    To phase in; to introduce a policy, system, or product gradually into operation.

    The agency decided to sunrise the regulation over a three-year period.

    In the first type (upper left quadrant), alternative industrial movements (AIMs) focus on the sunrising of new technologies.
    2015, Matthias Gross, Linsey McGoey

    Similarintroduce, launch

    Oppositesunset

    Note

    Business jargon builds this verb as the mirror of sunset, the word for winding something down. It takes a direct object and inflects regularly: sunrised, sunrising. The gerund turns up in the Routledge International Handbook of Ignorance (2015) as "the sunrising of new technologies". The verb remains uncommon, so outside planning and policy writing, phase in is the safer choice.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of sunrise apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

From Middle English sonne-rys or sunne ryse, formed from sun plus rise, literally meaning the sun rising.