Word.ws English Dictionary

parahelion

parahelion is the alternative spelling of parhelion.

Meaning of parhelion

Noun

parhelion (plural parhelia or parhelions)

  1. Synonym of sun dog (“a bright spot in the sky, usually one of two on the parhelic circle on both sides of the sun (or occasionally above and below it), caused by the refraction of the sun's image through ice crystals”).
    Synonyms:
    mock sun, sun dog
  2. An image or reflection.
    • The short (166 lines) Canto One, with all those amusing birds and parhelia, occupies thirteen cards.1962, Charles Kinbote [pseudonym; Vladimir Nabokov], Pale Fire, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, published November 1985, →ISBN

Forms of parahelion

pluralparahelions

Origin of parahelion

While parhelion is the most common spelling of this term, parahelion (with an a) may have gained usage due to the spelling of a related term paraselene.

Questions about parahelion

What is parahelion the alternative spelling of?
Parahelion is the alternative spelling of parhelion.

Words near parahelion in the dictionary

  1. parahaplogroups
  2. parahaploid
  3. parahawk
  4. parahawking
  5. parahawks
  6. parahelion
  7. paraheliotropic
  8. paraheliotropism
  9. paraheliotropisms
  10. parahelium
  11. parahemophilia

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: parahelion (page history and authors); parhelion (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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Cite this entry: “parahelion.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/parahelion. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.