predawn

adjective

pre·​dawn ˌprē-ˈdȯn 

-ˈdän

variants or less commonly pre-dawn

: existing or occurring before dawn

a predawn attack

the predawn hours

… the gigantic telescope started scanning the predawn sky.

—Howard Blum

predawn noun

or less commonly pre-dawn

plural predawns also pre-dawns

The most bone-chilling predawns create the sharpest sunrises.

—Christine Schultz

… stepping out into the quiet pre-dawn, closing the door.

—Bryan Burrough

Examples of predawn in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In the early predawn hours of Friday, May 16, no sheriff's deputy was assigned to the part of the jail where the escaped inmates were incarcerated, and a civilian worker monitoring the area had briefly stepped away to get food, according to the sheriff's office. —Alex Sundby, CBS News, 21 May 2025

Early risers will also get a chance to find the moon descending close to the southwestern horizon in the predawn hours of May 13, as the planetary trio of Saturn, Venus and Neptune rise in the eastern sky. —Anthony Wood, Space.com, 9 May 2025

To many foreign leaders, who grew up in a world cushioned by the postwar alliances and multilateral institutions created by the United States, the president’s approach has landed with the unsettling thud of a predawn visit at the door. —Mark Landler, New York Times, 1 May 2025

But supporters of permanent standard time counter that later sunrises on winter mornings would be downright dangerous for millions of children who would need to get to school in predawn darkness. —Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News, 11 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1883, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for predawn

• anton
• argon
• axon
• baronne
• baryon
• baton
• boron
• buisson
• bygone
• capon
• cardon
• chiffon