Rising Sun

proper noun

An unincorporated community in Pope County, Illinois.

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Meanings

proper noun
  1. Any of various places:
    1. An unincorporated community in Pope County, Illinois.
    2. An unincorporated community in White County, Illinois.
    3. A city, the county seat of Ohio County, Indiana, also located in Randolph Township.
    4. A town in Cecil County, Maryland.
    5. An unincorporated community in Leflore County, Mississippi.
    6. An unincorporated community in the town of Utica, Crawford County, Wisconsin.
    7. A hamlet in Calstock parish, Cornwall, England (OS grid ref SX3970).
  2. Any of many roadhouses or public houses, past or present, in Anglophone countries; calques exist in other lands and languages as well.

    There is a house in New Orleans, it's called the Rising Sun It's been the ruin of many a poor girl Great God, and I for one

    2013 [original era unknown], “[folk song lyrics by unknown authors, early 20th century]”, in Steve Sullivan, editor, Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, volume 1, Scarecrow Press, →ISBN, page 98
proper nounthe Rising Sun
  1. informalThe flag of Japan.
  2. metonymicallyhistoryImperial Japan; Imperial Japanese rule.

    Sixty years after the end of World War II, the thinning ranks of American ex-POWs have received neither compensation for their slave labor under the Rising Sun nor an apology from Japan.

    2006, John Glusman, chapter 26, in Conduct Under Fire: Four American Doctors and Their Fight for Life as Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941–1945, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, pages 464–5

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
sunset shell

Origin

By proprialization from rising Sun, driven by the theme that the Sun is very important in human affairs and that sunrise is an important time of day, both for the advent of daylight and because the rest of the day, with all its potential, lies ahead. The Japanese symbolism reflects that Japan is the easternmost country of East Asia, and the East is the place of the sunrise. The pub names reflect both the general importance of the rising Sun in human affairs and also the heraldic use of the rising Sun as a symbol for royalty, nobles, goodness, and so on.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Rising Sun. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Rising%20Sun

MLA

“Rising Sun.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Rising%20Sun. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Rising Sun,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Rising%20Sun.

Source: Rising Sun on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.