wakeful

adjective

wake·​ful ˈwāk-fəl How to pronounce wakeful (audio)
: not sleeping or able to sleep : sleepless
wakefully adverb
wakefulness noun

Examples of wakeful in a Sentence

the mother remained wakeful until her child returned home
Recent Examples on the Web Having the right pillow can make a big difference between a peaceful night’s sleep and a restless, wakeful one. Casey Clark, Peoplemag, 9 Sep. 2024 If bed and only bed will do, change up the environment for sleep vs. wakeful time. Lisa Strauss, Washington Post, 28 July 2024 Even in these moments of wakeful rest, your brain continues to rehearse and replay the past. Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta Magazine, 21 May 2024 That wakeful process is an essential part of creating a permanent memory. Linda Carroll, NBC News, 29 Mar. 2024 The team then applied zap and zip with this threshold value (of 0.31) to a distinct set of patients with severe disorders of consciousness—those either in a minimally conscious state or in an unresponsive wakeful one. Christof Koch, Scientific American, 1 Nov. 2017 That’s thanks to the array of soothing sounds this machine offers, plus the timer function that shuts it off without causing a wakeful disturbance. Kayla Blanton, Health, 19 July 2023 In fact, in nocturnal animals, the natural chemical is active and associated with wakeful states rather than sleep. Tree Meinch, Discover Magazine, 3 Mar. 2023 But instead of triggering drowsiness, caffeine blocks adenosine from binding and leaves the cells in a more active and wakeful state. Kareem Clark, Discover Magazine, 10 May 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wakeful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1546, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of wakeful was in 1546

Dictionary Entries Near wakeful

Cite this Entry

“Wakeful.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wakeful. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.

Kids Definition

wakeful

adjective
wake·​ful ˈwāk-fəl How to pronounce wakeful (audio)
: not sleeping or able to sleep
wakefully adverb
wakefulness noun

Medical Definition

wakeful

adjective
wake·​ful ˈwāk-fəl How to pronounce wakeful (audio)
: not sleeping or able to sleep : sleepless
wakefulness noun

More from Merriam-Webster on wakeful

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