wakeful

/ˈweɪkfl/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈweɪkfl/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈwāk-fəl How to pronounce wakeful (audio)/ (ame, mw)

wakeful — 形容詞

  • wakefulpositive
  • more wakefulcomparative
  • most wakefulsuperlative

1. describes a person who cannot get to sleep, especially at night when rest is nee

1.形容詞B2
釋義

失眠的

無法入睡或整夜無眠的

describes a person who cannot get to sleep, especially at night when rest is needed; the word can also refer to a stretch of time — such as a night or a journey — that is spent without any sleep.

例句

Takeshi lay wakeful in bed for hours, listening to the rain beat against the window.

Takeshi 躺在床上好幾個小時無法入睡，聽著雨點敲打窗戶。

lay + wakeful: predicative pattern with duration

Folake spent a wakeful night before her exam, too nervous to sleep more than an hour.

Folake 考前一晚失眠了，緊張得睡不到一個小時。

a wakeful + night: describing a period without sleep

同義詞
  • sleepless

    more common in everyday speech; 'sleepless' can describe a person or night, while 'wakeful' often implies an active effort or desire to sleep

  • insomniac

    clinical term for someone with a chronic sleep disorder; 'wakeful' is a general state, not a diagnosed condition

  • restless

    involves physical tossing and turning; 'wakeful' focuses on being unable to sleep rather than physical movement

反義詞
  • sleepy

    feeling a need or desire to sleep

  • drowsy

    half-asleep or feeling ready to fall asleep

  • asleep

    in a state of sleep

文法句型

a + wakeful + night / period / journey

lie / remain / be + wakeful

find + [reflexive pronoun] + wakeful

用法筆記

Predicative use ('lie wakeful', 'remain wakeful') is more common in literary or formal writing. When describing a period of time, the word appears attributively before the noun ('a wakeful night'). Avoid using 'wakeful' to mean simply 'awake and alert during the day', which is a different meaning not covered by this sense.

常見錯誤

❌I was wakeful all morning and finished my work early.
✅I was awake all morning and finished my work early.
💡'wakeful' describes difficulty sleeping when you want or need to rest, not daytime alertness.
❌The loud noise made me wakeful.
✅The loud noise woke me up.
💡'wakeful' means unable to sleep, not being woken up by something.