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“The sun’s coming soon. / A future, then, of warmth and runoff, / and old faces surprised to see us. / A cache of love, I’d call it, / opened up, vernal, refreshed.” These are the closing lines of the poem “Runoff” by Sidney Burris, and even if you don’t (yet) know the word vernal, you can probably divine its meaning from context. The sun’s arrival? Melting snow and ice? Optimism? It all sure sounds like spring, the muse of many a poet and the essence of vernal, an adjective that describes all things related to the season. While the sun has been crossing the equator since time immemorial, producing a vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere in late March and in the southern hemisphere in late September, the word vernal has only been in use in English since the early 16th century, when it blossomed from the Latin adjective vernālis. That word in turn traces back to the noun vēr, meaning “spring.”
Examples of vernal in a Sentence
Pam Defiglio, Chicago Tribune, 26 Mar. 2025
That's because Earth is currently in an ideal position for dazzling auroras, thanks to its proximity to the vernal equinox, which occurred on March 20.
—Daisy Dobrijevic, Space.com, 25 Mar. 2025
This Week: March 21-23, 2025 Spring started yesterday, with the vernal equinox bringing equal nights of light and dark to everywhere on our planet.
—Jamie Carter, Forbes, 21 Mar. 2025
The vernal equinox, which marks the start of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere, occurred at 5:01 a.m.
—Muri Assunção, New York Daily News, 20 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for vernal
Cite this Entry
“Vernal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vernal. Accessed 21 Apr. 2025.
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vernal
adjective
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