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early-morning hour

early-morning hour

14 2.6
A time early in the morning just after dawn
  • noun
translation icon : madrugada
  • Pictures of the Orionid meteor shower, which lit up the skies in the early morning hours of Oct. 21.

So it's a three day weekend in the early morning hours without a camera on.

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Examples

  • Banish had spent the better part of two early morning hours going over it with a red pen.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • In the early morning hours, students were allowed to escape to the south.

    Academic text (1990)
  • For me, the early morning hours are the best time for score study.

    Academic text (2005)
  • And that is just what I did in the early morning hours this Wednesday.

    Blog text (33)
  • As an early bird, I will tell you that I savor the early morning hours.

    Blog text (14)
  • In the early morning hours, she heard a car drive up, then a tapping on a door downstairs.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • We arrived at Petra at an early morning hour just after the day had dawned.

    Academic text (2000)
  • Both performances were recorded during the early morning hours in the Manhattan Center Studios on West 34th Street.

    Academic text (2007)
  • In the early morning hours of Friday, May 20, the Confederates abandoned their second and last position around Cassville.

    Academic text (2007)
  • The streets are peaceful at this early-morning hour, with few people around.

Synonyms

dawn
vsearly-morning hour
386 1.0

The first light in the sky before the sun rises

covers a full hour around that time rather than only the brief first light
sunrise
vsearly-morning hour
220 1.0

The time in the morning when the sun comes up and day begins

refers to an hour-long period around that moment rather than the single instant
start of the day
vsearly-morning hour
1 1.4

The early part of the morning when people begin daily activities

refers to a specific early hour near dawn rather than general activity start

How Early

predawn
8 3.0
dawn
386 1.0
early-morning hour
14 2.6

Surface Forms

Morphology

early-morning + hour

The meaning is directly compositional: 'early-morning' (the early part of the morning) modifies 'hour' (a sixty-minute period), so the phrase simply denotes an hour occurring in the early morning. This adjective+noun compounding is a transparent, cross-linguistically common pattern that a B1 learner who knows the constituents can readily understand.

Etymology

The phrase early-morning hour shows a clear picture: early, morning, and hour mean the first hour just after 'sunrise', when streets are quiet and shops open, so it means the hour at the very start of the day.