also: かんきょう
noun
cold winter dawn
Poetic term for a chilly early morning in winter. Used in literary or evocative contexts rather than everyday speech.
寒暁の空に星が冴えていた。
The stars shone clearly in the cold winter dawn sky.
彼の句は寒暁の静けさを詠んでいる。
His haiku captures the stillness of a cold winter dawn.
Compound of 寒 (cold) and 暁 (dawn). The reading かんぎょう is the standard on'yomi combination; the variant かんきょう reflects an older or dialectal reading of 暁.