eve

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points: 6
Words With Friends: 7
Letters: 3

Pronunciation

/iːv/

Definition of eve

12 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

The day or night before, usually used for holidays, such as Christmas Eve.

“She died on the eve of her 100th birthday.”

See all 12 definitions

noun

The day or night before, usually used for holidays, such as Christmas Eve.

“She died on the eve of her 100th birthday.”
(archaic, poetic)Evening, night.

“on a cold winter's eve.”
“I love to see the shaking twig / Dance till the shut of eve”
“And has she tired of weeping / As she lies down at eve.”
“Sitting on the dockside at Oban, watching the to-ing and fro-ing in the harbour on a perfect summer's eve, I reflect on a trip which has taken me through our busiest cities to traverse the country's main lines, as well as explore some of the furthest extremities that were literally out on a limb.”
(figuratively)The period of time when something is just about to happen or to be introduced

“the eve of a scientific discovery”
(abbreviation, alt-of)Abbreviation of endogenous viral element.

name

The first woman and mother of the human race; Adam's wife.

“And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.”
“After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.”
An unspecified primordial woman, from whom many or all people are descended.

“The Seven Daughters of Eve; Mitochondrial Eve”
A female given name from Hebrew.

“"You were always a cynic," said Edith tolerantly. "I'm sure that Eve will want to have a baby - isn't that why we called her Eve?" "Of course not," said Herbert, as if the baby-cult had long been irritating him. "We called her Eve, or Evelyn, after your grandmother, who was going to leave, and did leave us some money."”
An unincorporated community in Kentucky, United States.
An unincorporated community in Missouri, United States.
A conventional name for an agent attempting to intercept a message sent by Alice that is intended for Bob.
An English surname.
(alt-of, alternative)Alternative spelling of Ewe.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From a variant of the Middle English noun even (itself from Old English ǣfen), with a pre-1200 loss of the terminal '-n', which was mistaken for an inflection. See also…

See full etymology

From a variant of the Middle English noun even (itself from Old English ǣfen), with a pre-1200 loss of the terminal '-n', which was mistaken for an inflection. See also the now archaic or poetic even (“evening”), from the same source. In medieval Europe, days were considered to extend from sunset to sunset rather than midnight to midnight, so the night before a holiday was considered part of it, hence its "eve".