daybreak
noun
Simple meaning
The first light of day.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
daybraykSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdeɪbɹeɪk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The first light of day
The beginning of the day; the first moment of daylight.
Surat Al-Falaq (Arabic: سورة الفلق) (Dawn, Daybreak), the 113th Sura of the Qur'an.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The first light of day
Used this way, daybreak is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- cockcrow , rarer, so it draws attention
- dayspring , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
The first light of day.
The time when light first appears in the morning.
The first alcoholic drink of the day.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.