twilight

From Middle English twilight, twyelyghte, from Old English twēonelēoht (“twilight”), 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”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈtwaɪlaɪt/

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twilight (countable and uncountable, plural twilights)

1. 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.

   I could just make out her face in the twilight.

2. The time when this light is visible; the period between daylight and darkness.

   It was twilight by the time I got back home.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619:

     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.

3. (astronomy) The time when the sun is less than 18° below the horizon.
4. Any faint light through which something is seen; an in-between or fading condition.

   The twilight of one's life

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Locke

     The twilight of probability.

• evenfall, eventide, gloaming

• light

• astronomical twilight
• civil twilight
• nautical twilight

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

• twilightish
• twilighty
• twilit

• twilight years
• twilight zone

twilight (not comparable)

1. Pertaining to or resembling twilight; faintly illuminated; obscure.
   • Alexander Pope

     O’er the twilight groves and dusky caves

• crepuscular

twilight (third-person singular simple present twilights, present participle twilighting, simple past and past participle twilit or twilighted)

1. (transitive, poetic) To illuminate faintly.