autumnal means of or relating to autumn.
autumnal is pronounced /ɔːˈtʌm.nəl/.
Why “autumnal” is a great word
Relating to or characteristic of the season of autumn. From Latin autumnālis, from autumnus ("autumn") + -ālis ("-al"), first attested in English in the 1570s. Unlike "vernal" (which belongs to the bright, quickening breath of spring) or "harvest" (which names the specific labor of gathering), "autumnal" carries the weight of visible decline and a decaying atmosphere. It is the particular gold of a light that seems both rich and exhausted, the scent of woodsmoke clinging to wool, and the rustle of leaves that have lost their chlorophyll-green purpose—a quality of beauty inseparable from the knowledge that ripeness is only another word for ending.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin autumnāl(is). By surface analysis, autumn + -al.
adj
- Of or relating to autumn.
- Past the middle of life; in the third stage.e.g.“"The magistrates are God-fearing gentlemen, but merciful over-much,--that is a truth," added a third autumnal matron.”
Words closest in meaning
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