wakefulness C2+ Topic:Law & Government US /ˈweɪkfəlnəs/ UK /ˈweɪkfəlnəs/ See IPA manual Meanings 1 noun the state of being awake or unable to sleep Anxiety kept her in a restless wakefulness until dawn. Thesaurus Synonyms 1 noun · the state of being awake or... alertnessvigilancesleeplessnessinsomniawatchfulnessconsciousness ↔ Opposites sleepdrowsinesssomnolenceslumber Word family Related forms wakefulwakewakenawake Etymology AI details From wakeful (from Old English wacian 'to be awake' plus -ful) plus the noun-forming suffix -ness. wacian Old English *wakaną Proto-Germanic View etymology graph -> Topics Law & Government Word Formation & Derivatives External links Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary Google Images # wakefulness **Type:** Word **Level:** C2+ **Part of speech:** noun **IPA (US):** /ˈweɪkfəlnəs/ **IPA (UK):** /ˈweɪkfəlnəs/ ## Meanings 1. the state of being awake or unable to sleep ## Examples - Anxiety kept her in a restless wakefulness until dawn. ## Synonyms - alertness - vigilance - sleeplessness - insomnia - watchfulness - consciousness ## Antonyms - sleep - drowsiness - somnolence - slumber ## Related Forms - wakeful - wake - waken - awake ## Roots and Affixes - Root: wacian - Root: *wakaną ## Etymology From wakeful (from Old English wacian 'to be awake' plus -ful) plus the noun-forming suffix -ness. ## AI Etymology Wakefulness comes from wakeful (from Old English wacian 'to be awake' plus -ful) plus the noun-forming suffix -ness. The historical chain includes Old English wacian and Proto-Germanic *wakaną. The quoted older sense, "to be awake," supplies the immediate semantic anchor for wakefulness. The formation is best read as suffixal and borrowed: the word wakefulness carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "the state of being awake or unable to sleep". Related English forms include wakeful, wake, waken, and awake. The result is a noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization. ## Topics - Law & Government - Word Formation & Derivatives markdown