Morning and Mourning Sound the Same for No Reason at All
Morning is the first part of the day. Its homophone, mourning, is unrelated, and the two have confused writers for centuries.
Morning runs from dawn until noon. Its identical twin in sound, *mourning*, comes from an entirely different Old English word about grief; the resemblance is pure accident. Morning itself was reshaped: the older word was *morn*, and *-ing* was added later on the pattern of *evening*.
- The early part of the day. *A cold morning.*
- Before noon. *Ten in the morning.*
- Morning as a greeting. *Morning, everyone.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | morning | A quiet morning. |
| Plural | mornings | Winter mornings. |
| Adjective | morning | Morning coffee. |
| Related | morn | The dewy morn. |
| Homophone | mourning | In mourning. |
How it is used in a sentence
- See you tomorrow morning.No preposition after tomorrow.
- He works mornings only.Plural used adverbially.
- The family was in mourning.The other word entirely.
Parts of the day
- Dawn — first light
- Morning — from dawn until noon
- Afternoon — noon until early evening
- Evening — late afternoon until night
- Small hours — after midnight
From Middle English *morwening*, from *morwen*, morning, formed by analogy with *evening*. The older *morn* survives in poetry and in *good morrow*.
In the morning or on the morning?
In the morning generally; on a specific dated morning: on the morning of the fifth.
Is *morning* related to *mourning*?
No. Mourning comes from Old English *murnan*, to grieve. The two words simply collided in sound.