Sarah FerrellSelwyn Raab
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The Past Tense Forms of Awake and Awaken
Awake and awaken are two distinct verbs that mean the same thing. In other words, they're synonyms, and in the present tense they each behave the way English verbs typically behave:
The cat awakes at dawn.
The cat awakens at dawn.
Things get trickier in the past tense.
Our modern verb awake is the result of the long-ago melding of two older verbs. These verbs were very similar, but one had regular past tense forms (like play: played, has played) and the other had irregular past tense forms (like take: took, has taken).
When the two verbs melded into the modern awake (which was a process over many years), things got complicated, resulting ultimately in the following grammatically permissible sentences:
The cat awaked at dawn.
The cat awoke at dawn.
The cat was awaked by the mouse at dawn.
The cat was awoken by the mouse at dawn.
Note, though, that at this point, these are the most common:
The cat awoke at dawn.
The cat was awoken by the mouse at dawn.
That's the story of awake. Fortunately awaken (which was originally one of the past tense forms of awake) is simpler. It's a regular verb, which means it has the usual past tense forms:
The cat awakened at dawn.
The cat was awakened at dawn by a mouse.
As if all this weren't complicated enough, awake is also an adjective:
Because of the cat, I too am now awake.
For a detailed discussion of the history of these words, please see the The Grammatical History of 'Awaken' / 'Awoken' / 'Awakened'.
Synonyms
Examples of awake in a Sentence
Max Golembo, ABC News, 17 Oct. 2024
However, the group inadvertently awakes hundreds if not thousands of hibernating Xenomorphs who instantly spring into attack mode, making Navarro their first victim.
—Tim Lammers, Forbes, 15 Oct. 2024
Killian Baarlaer, The Courier-Journal, 19 Oct. 2024
Following eight hours of surgery, Wilson was shocked to awake and see his hand reattached.
—Scott Haugen, Outdoor Life, 16 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for awake 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'awake.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Articles Related to awake
Dictionary Entries Near awake
Cite this Entry
“Awake.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/awake. Accessed 3 Nov. 2024.
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awake
2 of 2 adjective
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