Asleep

How to spell asleep

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce asleep

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does asleep mean?

1. adjectiveIn a state of sleep; not awake.

Asleep in a sentence

• The baby finally fell asleep after the long drive home.

• By midnight the whole house was asleep and the lights were off.

Where does asleep come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grew from the Old English prefix a-, a worn-down form of an meaning 'on' or 'in a state of', combined with slǣp, the native word for sleep. That same a- prefix still survives in a small family of related state-words such as 'awake', 'alive', 'afloat', and 'ashore', all of which describe a condition somebody or something is in rather than a place. The slǣp half traces back to a Germanic root shared with Dutch slaap and German Schlaf, all carrying the sense of slumber or rest. The combined form meant literally 'in a state of sleep', and that is precisely the modern meaning. Because the opening 'a' is an unstressed schwa, writers sometimes hesitate over it, but knowing it is the old 'in a state of' prefix makes the single a easy to anchor.

How the word is built

• a- (Old English an, meaning 'on' or 'in a state of')
• sleep (from Old English slǣp, slumber)