Awe
Pronunciation
- UK enPR: ô, IPA: /É”Ë/
- Rhymes: -É”Ë
- US enPR: ô, IPA: /ɔ/
- cot-caught enPR: ä, IPA: /ɑ/
- Homophones: aw, oar in non-rhotic accents, or in non-rhotic accents, ore in non-rhotic accents, o'er in non-rhotic accents
Origin
From Old English eġe, influenced during Middle English by forms from the Old Norse cognate agi, both from Proto-Germanic *agaz.
Full definition of awe
Noun
awe
(uncountable)- A feeling of fear and reverence.
- A feeling of amazement.
- 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot (novel) Chapter IVFor several minutes no one spoke; I think they must each have been as overcome by awe as was I. All about us was a flora and fauna as strange and wonderful to us as might have been those upon a distant planet had we suddenly been miraculously transported through ether to an unknown world.
- 2012, Anna Lena Phillips, Sneaky Silk Moths, Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.
Derived terms
Verb
- (transitive) To inspire fear and reverence in.
- 1922, w, “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days Chapter 1/1/3, That large room had always awed Ivor: even as a child he had never wanted to play in it, for all that it was so limitless, the parquet floor so vast and shiny and unencumbered, the windows so wide and light with the fairy expanse of Kensington Gardens.
- (transitive) To control by inspiring dread.