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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
Marina Johnson, Louisville Courier Journal, 22 Sep. 2025
The vernal equinox, by the way, is when winter changes into spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
—John Tufts, IndyStar, 21 Sep. 2025
Those in the Southern Hemisphere, or south of the equator, will be experiencing the vernal or spring equinox, which marks the beginning of spring on Sept. 22.
—Janet Loehrke, USA Today, 19 Sep. 2025
This year, the first day of astronomical spring (also called the spring equinox) is
The first day of spring is not always on March 21, but usually within a few days of that date, falling on March 19, March 20 or March 21 — depending on when the vernal (or spring) equinox is.
—Alexis Simmerman, Austin American Statesman, 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 8 Oct. 2025.
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vernal
adjective
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