dawning 1 of 2

as in dawn
the first appearance of light in the morning or the time of its appearance the cold, gray dawning of a wintry day

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

dawning

2 of 2

verb

present participle of dawn

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of dawning
Noun
The quiet moments, the grief, the slow dawning of realization that her husband had written this piece as a way of dealing with his grief and her anger. — Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Mar. 2026 Ever enterprising, Toha does eventually make her way back to the party, but there, the ultimate dawning of her place outside of Nelly’s circle is heartbreaking. — Alissa Simon, Variety, 25 Feb. 2026 His addition also heralded the dawning of an era in which LACMA actively sought to strengthen its connections with the entertainment world. — Arts Editor, Los Angeles Times, 20 Feb. 2026 From the origins of the Yakuza, the dawning of chemical warfare, and FDR’s spy shops, the novel treks across World War II to the dawn of the Cold War. — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 6 Jan. 2026 The dawning of light in this actor’s eyes breathes life into the old tale. — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 1 Dec. 2025 On social media, some people even suggested this was the dawning of a new populist coalition of left and right. — Chicago Tribune, Twin Cities, 30 Nov. 2025 As the sun rises behind the ELT, the image stands for the dawning of a new era in astronomical discovery. — Kenna Hughes-Castleberry, Space.com, 17 Sep. 2025 This is the dawning of the age of school choice. — Stephen Moore, Boston Herald, 14 Aug. 2025
Verb
The dawning potential of generative AI promises to radically change how movies and TV shows are made. — Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 16 Sep. 2026 There’s both a lot and not much at all going on in Kamei’s life, which is complicated by his dawning friendship — and maybe something more — with an American military brat, Colin (West Mulholland, Presence). — Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 9 Sep. 2026 In this dawning age of artificial intelligence, tech companies are racing to train and run their large language models using massive data centers that guzzle electricity and strain resources. — Arielle Frommer, Scientific American, 20 Aug. 2026 And Cooke, the season’s MVP of revealing expressions and reaction shots, conveys through Alicent’s uncertain and frightened face at all those butterflies a dawning realization of the betrayal she’s suffered. — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 10 Aug. 2026 Léa Seydoux gives a very committed, unaffected performance as Lucy, an experimental pianist who must deal with the dawning knowledge that her beloved husband Philip (Laurence Rupp) has a second life online as a pedophile pornographer. — Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline, 15 May 2026 But the young nation was dawning a new age. — Tess Kenny, Chicago Tribune, 28 Apr. 2026 Three races in, there’ve been unforeseen winners, unpredicted changes to the schedule and the unanticipated reality of regulation changes dawning. — Amanda Davies, CNN Money, 24 Apr. 2026 This is the familiar stage of rhetorical climbdown, indicating dawning awareness that a problem is more complicated than the president initially thought. — S.e. Cupp, New York Daily News, 11 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dawning
Noun
  • Esmeralda Muñoz, 70, said her family was furious that agents showed up to their home in full tactical gear with guns drawn to arrest her husband before dawn.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Studies show women were already more likely than men to be using a computer at work at the dawn of the PC era.
    — Steve Liesman, CNBC, 19 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • With Saleh beginning his Tennessee tenure at 0-5, his head coaching record in the NFL sits at 20-41 overall after a multi-season stint with the New York Jets.
    — Mark Harris OutKick, FOXNews.com, 14 Oct. 2026
  • County documents show plans for Station 34 were outlined alongside other fire station projects beginning in 2016.
    — Monique John, CBS News, 14 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • Friday will see a brief warm front slide through around sunrise before a cold front moves through around noon.
    — Ron Smiley, CBS News, 13 Oct. 2026
  • The phenomenon occurs when rocket exhaust expands in the thin upper atmosphere and catches sunlight before sunrise.
    — Richard Tribou, The Orlando Sentinel, 13 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • Moody's, citing PitchBook data, said private equity distributions dropped from more than 30% of starting net asset value in 2022 to about 12% today.
    — Hugh Leask, CNBC, 16 Oct. 2026
  • Plasma will fully adopt the Wayland system and put support for starting new X11 sessions in Plasma to bed.
    — ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 15 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • Prosecutors charged her with registering to vote and casting a ballot the same day as Shah, but in her case at a polling location in Solano County.
    — Mathew Miranda, Sacbee.com, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Years earlier, a similar test by another group of researchers left their machine smoking, two days in a row.
    — Alex Pasternack, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • Until then, omitting leap seconds will make our digital infrastructure easier to manage and less prone to bugs or service outages arising from a leap second discontinuity.
    — Muskan Bhatia, Interesting Engineering, 16 Oct. 2026
  • The change won’t be noticed by most of us, and switching to continuous time will be easier for our digital infrastructure—there will be much less risk of bugs or service outages arising from a leap second discontinuity.
    — Emma Gometz, Scientific American, 15 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • The light green safari shade is especially fun, or go for an aquatic vibe with the icy morn/sea wave two-combo.
    — Rena Behar, Travel + Leisure, 26 May 2023
  • This gives me, in the parking lot the next morn, yet another opportunity to introduce myself to fellow travelers who possess jumper cables.
    — John Phillips, Car and Driver, 9 Jan. 2023
Verb
  • The film will shoot on location at the heart of Pendle in Lancashire, with principal photography commencing end of September.
    — Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 14 Sep. 2026
  • The fourth-round tie will not be played until the week commencing October 26.
    — Simon Johnson, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Dawning.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dawning. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

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