Word.ws English Dictionary

light at the end of the tunnel

light at the end of the tunnel noun: a better situation after long hardship.

Noun

light at the end of the tunnel (countable and uncountable, plural lights at the end of the tunnel)

  1. (idiomatic) A better situation after long hardship.
    • If there is no light at the end of the tunnel, chronic pain can render a person dysfunctional. In desperation, people often turn to potent pain-killing medication for relief.1999, Abraham J Twerski, It's Not As Tough As You Think: How to Smooth Out Life's Bumps
    • But by fall 2005, there was light at the end of the tunnel. The team could see the new business processes and financial data governance mechanisms actually being used by Nationwide employees.2008 January 15, CIO, volume 21, number 7
  2. A vision of a bright light, surrounded by darkness, seen by a dying person

Forms of light at the end of the tunnel

plurallights at the end of the tunnel

Questions about light at the end of the tunnel

What does light at the end of the tunnel mean?
Light at the end of the tunnel means a better situation after long hardship.
What part of speech is light at the end of the tunnel?
Light at the end of the tunnel is a noun.
What is the plural of light at the end of the tunnel?
The plural of light at the end of the tunnel is lights at the end of the tunnel.

Words near light at the end of the tunnel in the dictionary

  1. light along
  2. light art
  3. light artillery
  4. light as a feather
  5. light as a feather, stiff as a board
  6. light at the end of the tunnel
  7. light ball
  8. light balls
  9. light barrel
  10. light barrels
  11. light barrier

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: light at the end of the tunnel (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: En-au-light at the end of the tunnel.ogg.

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