twilight

Meanings

Noun

• 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.
• The time when this light is visible; the period between daylight and darkness.
• The time when the sun is less than 18° below the horizon.
• Any faint light through which something is seen; an in-between or fading condition.

Adjective

• Pertaining to or resembling twilight; faintly illuminated; obscure.

Verb

• To illuminate faintly.

Related

Narrower meaning words

• astronomical twilight
• civil twilight
• nautical twilight

Broader meaning words

• light

Origin

• From Middle English twilight, twyelyghte, equivalent to twi- + light, literally ‘second light, half-light’. Cognate to Scots twa licht, twylicht, twielicht, Low German twilecht, twelecht, Dutch tweelicht, German Zwielicht.