Awaken Meaning
/əˈweɪkən/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo cause to become awake.
verbTo stop sleeping; awake.
Sentence Examples
This book will awaken your imagination.
Those who look outward dream, but those who look inward awaken.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The alarm clock will ____ him at six o'clock every morning.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The loud noise outside the house will surely ____ the whole family.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English awakenen or awaknen, from Old English awæcnan or awæcnian, from a- plus wæcnan or wæcnian.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Be careful how you touch her, she'll awaken / As sleep's the only freedom all that she knows / And when you walk into her eyes, you won't believe / The way she's always paying for a debt she never owes"
— 1973, New Birth, “Wildflower”, in It's Been A Long Time:
"For this growing set, the idea that we might have a fixed, natural lifespan is pure defeatism—“deathism” even, a spell from which we must awaken to realise our full potential."
— 2025 October 25, Stephen Cave, “Threescore and many more”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9:
"He tries to awaken in them self-respect and reverence for their own spiritual culture."
— 1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 446:
"On the other hand, the self-cleaning smokebox belongs to the latter-day period of the L.M.S.R., when the visiting U.S.A. 2-8-0s of the war had awakened an interest in such things."
— 1951 April, Stirling Everard, “A Matter of Pedigree”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 273:
"I'll miss the sea. But a person needs new experiences. They draw something deep inside, allowing him to grow. Without change, something sleeps inside us and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken."
— 1984, 20:05 from the start, in Dune (Science Fiction), →OCLC:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The alarm clock will ____ him at six o'clock every morning.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The loud noise outside the house will surely ____ the whole family.