Word.ws English Dictionary

gegenschein

/ˈɡeɪ.ɡənˌʃaɪn/

gegenschein noun: a faint brightening of the night sky in the region of the ecliptic directly opposite the Sun.

Noun

gegenschein (countable and uncountable, plural gegenscheins)

  1. A faint brightening of the night sky in the region of the ecliptic directly opposite the Sun.
    • My object in appearing before the Association, at this time, is to present the observations of several other persons on the gegenschein or completed arch of the zodiacal light, of which I have received accounts since our meeting in Motreal.1860, George Jones, “Recent Observations, by various persons, on the Gegenschein, or Completed Arch of the Zodiacal Light”, in Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science...
    • The zodiacal light, gegenschein, and zodiacal band … are all visible.2001 Feb, John E. Bortle, “Introducing the Bortle Dark-sky Scale”, in Sky and Telescope, volume 101, number 2, page 126
    Synonyms:
    counterglow

Synonyms of gegenschein

Forms of gegenschein

pluralgegenscheins
alternative formGegenschein

Origin of gegenschein

Borrowed from German Gegenschein (“counter-shine”), from gegen- + Schein.

Questions about gegenschein

What does gegenschein mean?
Gegenschein means a faint brightening of the night sky in the region of the ecliptic directly opposite the Sun.
What part of speech is gegenschein?
Gegenschein is a noun.
How do you pronounce gegenschein?
Gegenschein is pronounced /ˈɡeɪ.ɡənˌʃaɪn/.
What is the plural of gegenschein?
The plural of gegenschein is gegenscheins.

Words near gegenschein in the dictionary

  1. gegenhalten
  2. gegenion
  3. gegenions
  4. gegenpress
  5. gegenpressing
  6. gegenschein
  7. gegenscheins
  8. gegenstandstheorie
  9. gegg
  10. gegged
  11. gegged in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gegenschein (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gegenschein.wav.

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