waken

W4A1K5E1N1
/ˈweɪkən/

verb

To wake or rouse from sleep.

Similar
disturbawakenwakerousewake uparouseawakecome alive
OriginMiddle English waknen ← Old English wæcnan ← Proto-Germanic *waknaną →
UncommonScrabble 12
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Meanings

verbwaken (third-person singular simple present wakens, present participle wakening, simple past and past participle wakened)

present singular third person wakens · participle present wakening · participle past wakened · past wakened

  1. transitiveTo wake or rouse from sleep.

    Synonyms: disturb

  2. intransitiveTo awaken; to cease to sleep; to be awakened; to stir.

    Early, Turnus wakening with the light.

    1697, Virgil, “The Ninth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
    1 more example

    She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realizing that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.

    1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter II (Burglary), page 378, column 1

Synonyms & antonyms

verbTo wake or rouse from sleep.

Similar
disturb

More synonyms by meaning

verbcause to become awake or conscious

Similar
awakenwakerousewake uparouse
Broader
changealtermodify

verbstop sleeping

Similar
wake upawakearouseawakenwakecome alive
Broader
change stateturn
Also see
arouseawakeawakenbring roundcallcome aliverousestirwakewake up

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Germanic*waknaną
  2. Old Englishwæcnan
  3. Middle Englishwaknen
  4. Englishwaken

From Middle English waknen, from Old English wæcnan, from Proto-Germanic *waknaną.

More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Germanic

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Esperanto veki
  • vekirouse from sleep
Irish múscail
  • múscailrouse from sleep

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with waken

takenmistakenJamaicanAikenshakenawakenforsakenovertakenmakenkrakenakenfaconnakenracon
All rhymes →

Anagrams

WankeWanek
Cite this entry
APA

waken. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/waken

MLA

“waken.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/waken. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “waken,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/waken.

Source: waken on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.