# twilight
## English
### Etymology

* PIE word
* *dwóh₁
From Middle English twilight, twyelyghte, equivalent to twi- (“double, half-”) +‎ light, literally ‘second light, half-light’. Cognate to Scots twa licht, twylicht, twielicht (“twilight”), Low German twilecht, twelecht (“twilight”), Dutch tweelicht (“twilight, dusk”), German Zwielicht (“twilight, dusk”). Compare Old English twēone lēoht (“twilight”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈtwaɪˌlaɪt/
* Audio (US):(file)

### Noun

twilight (countable and uncountable, plural twilights)
* The soft light in the sky seen before the rising and (especially) after the setting of the sun, occasioned by the illumination of the earth’s atmosphere by the direct rays of the sun and their reflection on the earth.
    Near-synonym: half-light
    I could just make out her face in the twilight.
* The time when this light is visible; the period between daylight and darkness.
    Hyponyms: dawn, dusk
    It was twilight by the time I got back home.
** 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.
* Any faint light through which something is seen.
** 1927, Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Book VII, section 4, page 233:Two women, Eusabio’s wife and sister, looked on from the deep twilight of the hut.
* (astronomy) The time when the sun is less than 18° below the horizon.
* (figurative, by extension) An in-between or fading condition through which something is perceived.
    The twilight of one's life
** 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:, Book IV, Chapter XIV
    The twilight […] of probability.
** 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:“They have not enough heart,” said Edith, with a smile. The very twilight of a smile: so singularly were its light and darkness blended.

#### Synonyms

* (period between daylight and darkness): blue hour, gloaming; see also Thesaurus:twilight

#### Hypernyms

* light

#### Hyponyms

* (period between daylight and darkness): cockcrow, first light / evenfall, eventide; see also Thesaurus:dawn and Thesaurus:dusk

#### Hyponyms

* astronomical twilight
* civil twilight
* nautical twilight

#### Coordinate terms

* dawn (end of ~ in the morning)
* dusk (end of ~ in the evening)
* evening
* golden hour
* nightfall
* sundown

#### Derived terms

* twilight anesthesia
* twilight industry
* twilight language
* twilightish
* Twilight of the Gods
* twilight shift
* twilights
* twilighty
* twilight sleep
* twilight years
* twilight zone
* twilit

#### Translations

Afrikaans: skemer (af)
Albanian: muzg (sq) m
Arabic: شَفَق m (šafaq)
Aramaic: ܢܘܨܦܐ, ܒܗܪܐ
Armenian: մթնշաղ (hy) (mtʻnšaġ)
Azerbaijani: toran
Bashkir: эңер (eñer)
Belarusian: змярка́нне n (zmjarkánnje), змрок m (zmrok), прыце́мак m (prycjémak), суто́нне n (sutónnje)
Bulgarian: здрач (bg) m (zdrač), су́мрак (bg) m (súmrak)
Catalan: crepuscle (ca) m
Cebuano: kilumkilom
Czech: soumrak (cs) m
Danish: tusmørke n, skumring (da) c (after setting of sun only), gry n, daggry (da) n (before rising of sun only)
Dutch: tweelicht (nl) n, deemstering (nl) f, schemering (nl) f
Egyptian: (jḫḫw)
Esperanto: krepusko
Estonian: agu (et); koit (morning), eha (evening)
Faroese: skýming f, dimming f, hálvalýsi n
Finnish: hämärä (fi), aamuhämärä (fi), iltahämärä (fi)
French: demi-jour (fr) m, crépuscule (fr) m
Galician: crepúsculo (gl) m, lucenza (gl) f
Georgian: ბინდი (bindi)
German: Zwielicht (de) n, Dämmerung (de) f
Greek: σούρουπο (el) n (soúroupo)
Ancient: λύγη f (lúgē)
Hebrew: דִּימְדּוּמִים m pl
Hiligaynon: sirom, hinudlaw
Hindi: गोधुलि (godhuli) (evening twilight), झुटपुटा (hi) (jhuṭpuṭā), सांध्य प्रकाश (sāndhya prakāś), द्वाभा (hi) (dvābhā)
Hungarian: szürkület (hu), félhomály (hu) (both before sunrise and after sunset), pirkadat (hu), pirkadás (hu), virradat (hu) (before sunrise only), alkonyat (hu) (after sunset only)
Icelandic: ljósaskipti (is) f, húm (is) n, rökkur (is) n
Ilocano: sardam, suripet
Irish: coimheascar m, clapsholas (ga) m
Italian: crepuscolo (it) m
Japanese: 夕暮れ (ja) (ゆうぐれ, yūgure), 黄昏 (ja) (たそがれ, tasogare, こうこん, kōkon)
Khmer: អស្តង្គត (km) (ʼɑhsdɑngkŭət)
Korean: 어스름 (ko) (eoseureum), 황혼(黃昏) (ko) (hwanghon)
Latgalian: mikrieslis
Latin: crepusculum n
Latvian: krēsla (lv) f
Lithuanian: prietema f
Low German: Tweidüster
Luxembourgish: Dämmerung f
Macedonian: са́мрак m (sámrak)
Malay: (sunset) teja
Maori: ririko, rikoriko, matarikoriko, mārikoriko
Navajo: hayííłką́ (morning), nahootsoii (evening)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: skumring (no) m (after setting of sun only), tussmørke (no) n
Nynorsk: tussmørke n, skumring f, skreddartime m
Old English: ǣfenglōm m
Persian:
Dari: شَفَق (šafaq)
Iranian Persian: شَفَق (šafağ), گُرْگ‌ومیش (gorg-o-miš)
Polish: zmierzch (pl) m, zmrok (pl) m
Portuguese: crepúsculo (pt) m, lusco-fusco (pt) m
Romanian: amurg (ro) n, crepuscul (ro) n, zori (ro)
Russian: су́мерки (ru) pl (súmerki), су́мрак (ru) m (súmrak)
Scottish Gaelic: ciaradh m, eadar-sholas m
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: су̏мра̄к m
Roman: sȕmrāk (sh) m
Slovak: súmrak m
Slovene: somrak m
Southern Altai: эҥер (eŋer)
Spanish: crepúsculo (es) m
Swedish: tveljus (sv) n, skymning (sv) c (after sunset only), gryning (sv) c (before sunrise only)
Tagalog: takipsilim (tl), dapithapon (after setting of sun only), bukang-liwayway (tl) (before rising of sun only)
Thai: สนธยา (th) (sǒn-tá-yaa)
Tocharian B: sānti
Turkish: tan (tr)
Udmurt: акшан (akšan)
Ukrainian: су́тінки pl (sútinky), при́смерк m (prýsmerk)
Urdu: شَفَق (ur) f (śafaq)
Vietnamese: hoàng hôn (vi) (after setting of sun only), bình minh (vi) (before rising of sun only)
Võro: ago; hummogunõ ago (morning), õdagunõ ago (evening)
Waray-Waray: sidsid, salidsid, sirom :
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Adjective

twilight (not comparable)
* Pertaining to or resembling twilight; faintly illuminated; obscure.
** 1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC:
* Synonym of mesopelagic (“Describing the pelagic zone of the ocean between the photic epipelagic and the aphotic bathypelagic zones, characterized by very minimal light.”)

#### See also

* crepuscular

### Verb

twilight (third-person singular simple present twilights, present participle twilighting, simple past and past participle twilit or twilighted)
* (transitive, poetic) To illuminate faintly.