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autumn

/ˈɔdəm/
/ˈɔtəm/
IPA guide

Other forms: autumns

Autumn is the season after summer, when leaves fall from trees. It's also the season when the days get shorter and colder, and everything turns brown and drab, but people like it anyway, for the cocoa and cider, probably.

Autumn is the third season of the year, coming after summer and before winter, and coinciding with the dropping of leaves from the trees as they go into a winter rest, which is why it's also called fall. We also use autumn metaphorically to talk about the seasons of a person's life, like that luminous older actress in the autumn of her career: she's not yet playing roles in nursing homes, but neither is she scampering around in bikinis.

Definitions of autumn
  1. noun
    the season when the leaves fall from the trees
    synonyms: fall
    see moresee less
    type of:
    season, time of year
    one of the natural periods into which the year is divided by the equinoxes and solstices or atmospheric conditions
Pronunciation
US
/ˈɔdəm/
UK
/ˈɔtəm/
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