twilight
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtwaɪˌlaɪt/
Forms: form: twilights
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”).
Senses: examples: text: Near-synonym: half-light
text: I could just make out her face in the twilight.
glosses: 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.
examples: text: It was twilight by the time I got back home.
text: 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.
ref: 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
glosses: The time when said light is visible; the period between daylight and darkness.
examples: text: Two women, Eusabio’s wife and sister, looked on from the deep twilight of the hut.
ref: 1927, Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Book VII, section 4, page 233:
glosses: Any faint light through which something is seen.
topics: astronomy
natural-sciences
glosses: The time when the sun is less than 18° below the horizon.
examples: text: The twilight of one's life
text: , Book IV, Chapter XIV
The twilight […] of probability.
text: “They have not enough heart,” said Edith, with a smile. The very twilight of a smile: so singularly were its light and darkness blended.
ref: 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:
glosses: An in-between or fading condition through which something is perceived.
Synonyms: sense: period between daylight and darkness
word: blue hour
word: gloaming
word: crepuscule
word: crepusculum
word: dimmet
word: evenglome
word: glooming
word: tweenlight
word: twilight
Hypernyms: light
Hyponyms: sense: period between daylight and darkness
word: cockcrow
word: first light
word: evenfall
word: eventide
word: dawn and Thesaurus:dusk
word: astronomical twilight
word: civil twilight
word: nautical twilight
word: dawn
word: dusk
Coordinate terms: english: end of twilight in the morning
translation: end of twilight in the morning
word: dawn
english: end of twilight in the evening
translation: end of twilight in the evening
word: dusk
word: evening
word: golden hour
word: nightfall
word: sundown
Meronyms: word: lauds
topics: Christianity
word: vespers
topics: Christianity
Derived terms: twilight anesthesia
twilight birth
twilight industry
twilightish
twilight language
Twilight of the Gods
twilights
twilight shift
twilight sleep
twilighty
twilight years
twilight zone
twilit
Related terms: word: daytime
word: nighttime
word: golden hour
topics: photography
hobbies
arts
lifestyle