serene

• (UK) IPA^(key): /səˈɹiːn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /səˈɹin/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -iːn

From Middle English, borrowed from Latin serēnus (“clear, cloudless, untroubled”).

serene (comparative more serene or serener, superlative most serene or serenest)

1. Calm, peaceful, unruffled.

   She looked at her students with joviality and a serene mentality.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, “A Lady in Company”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 6:

     Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.

2. Without worry or anxiety; unaffected by disturbance.
3. (archaic) Fair and unclouded (as of the sky); clear; unobscured.
   • 1717, Alexander Pope, “Winter. The Fourth Pastoral. […]”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], OCLC 43265629, page 30:

     Now ſleeping flocks on their ſoft fleeces lie, / The moon, ſerene in glory, mounts the sky, […]

   • 1750 June 12 (date written; published 1751)​, T[homas] Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, in Designs by Mr. R[ichard] Bentley, for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], published 1753, OCLC 519198867, page 32:

     Full many a gem of pureſt ray ſerene / The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear: […]

   • 1818, [Mary Shelley], chapter VI, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, OCLC 830979744:

     A serene sky and verdant fields filled me with ecstasy.

4. Used as part of certain titles, originally to indicate sovereignty or independence.

   Her Serene Highness

• all serene
• serenity

serene (third-person singular simple present serenes, present participle serening, simple past and past participle serened)

1. (transitive) To make serene.
   • 1728, James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, OCLC 642619686, lines 866–867, page 34:

     When heaven and earth, as if contending, vye / To raiſe his being, and ſerene his ſoul.

serene (plural serenes)

1. (poetic) Serenity; clearness; calmness.
   • 1801, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], OCLC 277545047:

     the serene of heaven

   • 1742, Edward Young, Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality

     To their master is denied / To share their sweet serene.

Borrowed from Middle French serein, from Old French serein (“evening”), from Vulgar Latin *serānum, from substantive use of sērum, neuter of sērus (“late”) + -ānus suffix.

serene (plural serenes)

1. A fine rain from a cloudless sky after sunset.
   • 1605 (first performance)​, Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Volpone, or The Foxe. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Ben Jonson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, OCLC 960101342:

     Some serene blast me.

• serein
• serena (obsolete)

• Oxford English Dictionary. serein n. 1.

• reseen, resene

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serene

1. Inflected form of sereen

serena +‎ -e

serene

1. calmly, serenely

serene

1. feminine plural of sereno

From serēnus +‎ -ē.

serēnē (comparative serēnius, superlative serēnissimē)

1. clearly, brightly

serēne

1. vocative masculine singular of serēnus

• “serene”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

serene

1. inflection of serenar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

serene

1. inflection of serenar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

serene

1. absolute definite natural masculine singular of seren.