Autumn

How to spell autumn

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce autumn

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does autumn mean?

1. nounThe season after summer and before winter, when leaves fall and crops are harvested.

Autumn in a sentence

• The trees turn gold and red every autumn.

• They planted the bulbs in early autumn for a spring display.

Where does autumn come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Autumn comes from the Latin autumnus, the Roman name for the season that falls between summer and winter. The deeper origin of autumnus is uncertain, though it is often linked to the idea of the harvest and the gathering in of crops, and some scholars connect it to roots meaning to increase or to be enriched, fitting for a season of plenty. English borrowed the word through Old French autompne in the 1300s, gradually displacing the older native term harvest as the everyday name for the season. The spelling kept its Latin shape, including the silent final n that mirrors autumnus, which is precisely the trap, since the sound stops at the m. The same silent-n pattern appears in relatives such as column and solemn, where a Latin -mn ending leaves the n unpronounced.

How the word is built

• autumn (from Latin autumnus, the season of harvest); the final -n is silent in speech but written