1
as in to awaken
to cause to stop sleeping
my banging around in the kitchen woke my wife
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to awake
to cease to be asleep
I woke with a start when the door slammed
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in to warn
to give notice to beforehand especially of danger or risk
a public service announcement designed to wake people to the dangers of aggressive driving
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in consciousness
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of wake
Debra Gittler, Chicago Tribune, 2 Sep. 2025
The news comes in the wake of the pic receiving a 6 1/2 minute standing ovation on the first night of the Venice Film Festival.
—Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 2 Sep. 2025
Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 6 Sep. 2025
My first safari was back in 1989; followed by my honeymoon safari in 1996, when my husband and I woke to lion tracks outside our tent.
—Karin Jones, Travel + Leisure, 4 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wake
Verb
The state of exception came in the wake of decades of violence and weak institutions.
—Debra Gittler, Chicago Tribune, 2 Sep. 2025
The news comes in the wake of the pic receiving a 6 1/2 minute standing ovation on the first night of the Venice Film Festival.
—Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 2 Sep. 2025
Noun
The aforementioned masks, for instance, hasten strange visions for Blakey, but the film’s hard boundary between his dreams and waking life sap these sequences of all tension.
—Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 6 Sep. 2025
My first safari was back in 1989; followed by my honeymoon safari in 1996, when my husband and I woke to lion tracks outside our tent.
—Karin Jones, Travel + Leisure, 4 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wake
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wake
Verb
-
Gnawing paranoia inevitably awakens Pynchon’s characters to the matrix of control enveloping their lives.—
John Lopez,
HollywoodReporter,
6 Sep. 2025
-
Many of us in the workforce don’t have the luxury of when to hit the hay or awaken in the morning.—
Bryan Robinson,
Forbes.com,
6 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
There won’t be a day when Americans awake to news that vaccines are prohibited, or that the National Institutes of Health has been shuttered.—
Dhruv Khullar,
New Yorker,
6 Sep. 2025
-
After traversing nearby neighborhoods with William in their patrol car, officers found the boy's home and awoke his parents to the news.—
Melina Khan,
USA Today,
4 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
The swells will continue to build and increase along east-facing shorelines through the middle of the week, the hurricane center warned.—
Thao Nguyen,
USA Today,
8 Sep. 2025
-
Janet, Shannon and Heather were in the kitchen, and Janet was pinning the collar onto Heather's confirmation robe when a ceiling light, which was affixed to the ceiling with two chains and several eye hooks into a beam, crashed down onto the kitchen table without warning.—
Jessica Sager,
PEOPLE,
7 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
With the rise of the body positivity movement, the social consciousness became (somewhat) more aware that these comments are unacceptable and harmful.—
Alison Mann,
SELF,
5 Sep. 2025
-
One standing in the world of consciousness, the other submerged.—
Leila Chatti
September 5,
Literary Hub,
5 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
A little more than five years ago, Vice President Mike Pence gave a rousing speech in Alabama, setting a goal of landing humans on the Moon by 2024 and laying the political groundwork for the Artemis Program and all that has followed.—
Eric Berger,
ArsTechnica,
5 Sep. 2025
-
If anything might rouse him now The kind old sun will know.—
Jack Sheehan
September 4,
Literary Hub,
4 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
By February, Dudek had become the conduit between DOGE and the SSA, alerting top agency officials that DOGE wanted to work at headquarters.—
Eli Hager,
ProPublica,
8 Sep. 2025
-
Phillips died in a police shootout on Monday, after officers were alerted to a possible break-in at a farm goods store in Poipoi in the western Waikato district, near to where he was believed to have been hiding out with his kids, CNN, Radio New Zealand (RNZ) and ABC News Australia reported.—
Escher Walcott,
PEOPLE,
8 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Wake.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wake. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share