twilight

/ˈtwaɪˌlaɪt/

twilight 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.

Noun

twilight (countable and uncountable, plural twilights)

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.
- Near-synonym: half-light
- I could just make out her face in the twilight.
Synonyms:

half-light
The time when said light is visible; the period between daylight and darkness.
- 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.1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC
Synonyms:

blue hour
Any faint light through which something is seen.
- Two women, Eusabio’s wife and sister, looked on from the deep twilight of the hut.1927, Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Book VII, section 4, page 233
The time when the sun is less than 18° below the horizon.
(broadly, figuratively) An in-between or fading condition through which something is perceived.
- The twilight of one's life
- , Book IV, Chapter XIV
  The twilight […] of probability.

Adjective

twilight (not comparable)

Pertaining to or resembling twilight; faintly illuminated; obscure.
Synonym of mesopelagic (“Describing the pelagic zone of the ocean between the photic epipelagic and the aphotic bathypelagic zones, characterized by very minimal light.”)
- twilight zone
Synonyms:

mesopelagic

Verb

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

(poetic, transitive) To illuminate faintly.

twilight meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

twilight in Hindi

light before rising and after the setting of the Sun: गोधूलि godhūli, झुटपुटा jhuṭpuṭā, सांध्य प्रकाश sāndhya prakāś, द्वाभा dvābhā, धुंधलका dhundhalkā, संध्या sandhyā
evening twilight: गोधूलि godhūli, झुटपुटा jhuṭpuṭā, सांध्य प्रकाश sāndhya prakāś, द्वाभा dvābhā, धुंधलका dhundhalkā, संध्या sandhyā

twilight in Tamil

light before rising and after the setting of the Sun: மெல்லொளி melloḷi
evening twilight: மாலை மெல்லொளி mālai melloḷi
faint light; dubious medium: மெல்லொளி melloḷi

twilight in Marathi

गोधूळ

twilight in Urdu

light before rising and after the setting of the Sun: شَفَق śafaq

More languagesFewer languages

twilight in Bengali: গোধূলি, সন্ধ্যার আলো
twilight in Telugu: ట్విలైట్, ట్విలైటింగ్
twilight in Malayalam: സന്ധ്യ sandhya
twilight in Kannada: ಮುಂಬೆಳಕು, ಬಯ್ಬೆಳಕು, ಕಡೆವೆಳಗು, ಮುಸ್ಸಂಜೆ
twilight in Gujarati: સંધિકાળ, ગોધૂળ
twilight in Odia: ଗୋଧୂଳି, ଗୋଧୂଲି
twilight in Sanskrit: संधा saṃdhā́
twilight in Nepali: गोधूलि, ट्वाइलाइट, ट्वाइलाइटिङ
twilight in Tagalog: takipsilim, dapithapon, bukang-liwayway
twilight in Arabic: شَفَق šafaq
twilight in Malay: teja, senja kala
twilight in Indonesian: senja kala
twilight in Thai: สนธยา sǒn-tá-yaa
twilight in Vietnamese: hoàng hôn, bình minh

Examples of twilight in a sentence

But the warm twilight round us twain will never rise again.
Now that he's entering his twilight years, he's writing his memoirs.
The dawn of civilization didn't imply twilight of barbarity.

All 39 example sentences with twilight

Synonyms of twilight

All synonyms of twilight

Forms of twilight

Noun
plural	twilights
Verb
third-person singular present	twilights
present participle	twilighting
past participle	twilit
past	twilit
past participle	twilighted
past	twilighted

Plural of twilight: twilights

Origin of twilight

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”).

Words formed from twilight

Phrases with twilight

Questions about twilight

What does twilight mean?: Twilight means 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.
What is twilight in Hindi?: Twilight in Hindi is गोधूलि (godhūli), झुटपुटा (jhuṭpuṭā), सांध्य प्रकाश (sāndhya prakāś). See Twilight meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is twilight?: Twilight can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce twilight?: Twilight is pronounced /ˈtwaɪˌlaɪt/.
What is the plural of twilight?: The plural of twilight is twilights.

Words near twilight in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: twilight (page history and authors); twilight (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); twilight (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); twilight (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); സന്ധ്യ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); twilight (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); twilight (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); twilight (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); संधा (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); twilight (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-twilight.ogg.

Cite this entry: “twilight.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/twilight. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.