eve
noun
Simple meaning
The period immediately before something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
eevIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈiv
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 day or night before, usually used for holidays, such as Christmas Eve.
“He always arrives on the eve of her departure.”
The period immediately before something
figurative
The period of time when something is just about to happen or to be introduced
An unspecified primordial woman, from whom many or all people are descended.
An ethnic group who inhabit southeastern Ghana, Togo, and Benin.
Viral DNA embedded within the genome of a non-virus organism which is left over from an ancestral infection which integrated viral DNA into the genomic heritage of the organism's ancestry.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The day or night before, usually used for holidays, such as Christmas Eve.
Used this way, eve is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“He always arrives on the eve of her departure.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “eve of …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: eve of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use eve
- “He always arrives on the eve of her departure.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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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.