dreamtime

noun

dream·​time ˈdrēm-ˌtīm How to pronounce dreamtime (audio)
often capitalized
: the time of creation in the mythology of the Australian aborigines

Examples of dreamtime in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
That suits director Lorcan Finnegan (Without Name, Vivarium) and screenwriter Thomas Martin’s ambitions to call back to and yet also spoof vintage Australian New Wave films like Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout (1971), dreamtime stories about alienated outsiders. Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 May 2024 And while Tatch recommends no less than 7 hours of sleep, my actual dreamtime was a lot worse than what those numbers imply. Dave Johnson, Forbes, 5 May 2021 An Aboriginal dreamtime story about the platypus (one indigenous name for the animal is Dharragarra) explains its origin as the product of a courtship between a water rat and a duck. Helen Sullivan, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2020 Yet this is a slightly different flavor than pure drift away, dreamtime escapism. Bess Matassa, Teen Vogue, 5 Apr. 2018 Then there was the fractured dreamtime of 2010’s Inception and the space-travel distortions of Interstellar, both movies that resolve into heartwarming family reunions. Christian Lorentzen, New Republic, 25 July 2017 Often my dreamtime recipes come out somewhat better than my waking recipes. John Kelly, Washington Post, 12 July 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1896, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of dreamtime was in 1896

Dictionary Entries Near dreamtime

Cite this Entry

“Dreamtime.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dreamtime. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!