awaken
awaken Lexical Profile
awaken Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To stop sleeping or cause someone to stop sleeping.
"The gentle sound of rain against the windowpane helped awaken her at dawn."
To evoke, stir up, or call forth (an emotion, memory, or feeling).
"Visiting his childhood neighborhood served to awaken fond memories of summer afternoons."
To become or make someone aware of a fact, truth, or situation (often followed by 'to').
"The documentary helped awaken the public to the urgent need for ocean conservation."
Word Nuance & Usage
While 'wake', 'awake', 'waken', and 'awaken' all share overlapping meanings, 'awaken' is regular in its conjugation ('awakened') and is strongly favored in figurative or literary contexts, such as awakening an emotion, memory, or realization.
• Rhymes for awaken
Word Origin & Etymology
From Old English 'awæcnan', meaning 'to spring into being, arise, or originate', formed from the prefix 'a-' (up, out) and 'wæcnan' (to become awake), from the Proto-Germanic root '*waknan'.