twilight
/ˈtwaɪˌlaɪt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.82 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
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.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The time when said light is visible; the period between daylight and darkness.
Countable; Uncountable
adj
Pertaining to or resembling twilight; faintly illuminated; obscure.
adj
Synonym of mesopelagic (“Describing the pelagic zone of the ocean between the photic epipelagic and the aphotic bathypelagic zones, characterized by very minimal light.”)
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonym: half-light"
- "I could just make out her face in the twilight."
- "It was twilight by the time I got back home."
- "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."
- "Two women, Eusabio’s wife and sister, looked on from the deep twilight of the hut."
- "The twilight of one's life"
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”).