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Glite Dictionary
🌅 Before sunrise 🌅 Early morning
predawn

predawn

8 3.0
Happening just before sunrise
  • adjective
  • /ˈpridɔːn/
translation icon : preamanecer
  • But Venus quickly moves on and becomes visible in the predawn sky by the end of June.
  • the predawn hours
  • the predawn sky

Examples

  • All seemed gray in this predawn expanse of sky and sea.

    Blog text (6)

  • The old house was quiet in the predawn darkness.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • The sun has not yet risen, but there is some predawn light.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • In the pink predawn light, she could see the lines of tension were back in his face.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Rates should average a meteor per minute or better in the predawn hours of the 13th.

    Academic text (2007)

  • I moved along the walls to the phone in the kitchen, groping in the predawn darkness.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • The rest of the bright planets cluster together in the predawn twilight.

    Academic text (2004)

  • Royal Air Force night bombers were to destroy shore defenses during the predawn hours.

    Academic text (1994)

  • In the predawn chill, many of the girls shiver as they wait their turn with the soap.

    Academic text (1991)

  • I enjoy running in the predawn stillness, when the world is quiet and peaceful.

How Light

dawn
386 1.0
predawn
8 3.0
dim
62 1.0
dark
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

predawn positive

Morphology

predawn = dawn (transparent) = pre + dawn

This is a standard temporal use of the prefix 'pre-' meaning 'before' attached to 'dawn'.

Etymology

Predawn is made of pre- 'before' and dawn 'first light', like preview where pre- means 'before'. So predawn describes something that happens in the period just before sunrise.