astir

adjective

ə-ˈstər How to pronounce astir (audio)
Synonyms of astirnext
1
: exhibiting activity
streets astir with shoppers
2
: being out of bed : up
no one was astir

Synonyms of astir

Relevance
See All Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus

Examples of astir in a Sentence

the mall was astir with throngs of holiday shoppers

Word History

First Known Use

1765, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of astir was in 1765

Rhymes for astir

See All Rhymes for astir

Browse Nearby Words

astipulate
astir
Asti Spumante
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Astir.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/astir. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

Kids Definition

astir

adjective
ə-ˈstər How to pronounce astir (audio)
1
: being in a state of activity : stirring
2
: being out of bed : up
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of perfunctory

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
hangman letters and game
Hangman Lightning Round Figure out which word fits in the blanks.
See All