Definition

1. Noun:

   • The diffused light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon: The soft, often colored light visible after sunset and before sunrise, caused by the refraction and scattering of sunlight in the atmosphere.
   • The time of day immediately following sunset or preceding sunrise: The period of the day characterized by this soft light; dusk or dawn.
   • A condition or period of decline, obscurity, or ambiguity: A state or phase following a peak, where things become less clear, distinct, or powerful.

2. Adjective:

   • Lighted by or as if by twilight: Characterized by the soft, dim light of twilight; dusky.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • The sky was painted in beautiful shades of orange and purple during the twilight.
  • He enjoyed taking long walks in the twilight.
  • The company is now in the twilight of its dominance in the market.

• Adjective:

  • We sailed down the twilit river as the stars began to appear.
  • The room was filled with a twilight glow from the setting sun.

Advanced Usage

• "in the twilight of": In the final, declining stages of something.
  • The actor gave some of his best performances in the twilight of his career.
• "twilight zone": A situation or state characterized by ambiguity, uncertainty, or being between two distinct conditions. (Note: This is a common compound phrase derived from the core meaning).
  • The legal status of the territory existed in a twilight zone between independence and occupation.

Variants and Related Words

• Twilit (adj.): Another form of the adjective meaning "lighted by twilight."
  • The twilit woods were quiet and peaceful.
• Dusk (n.): The darker stage of twilight, especially in the evening.
• Gloaming (n.): A literary term for twilight, especially evening twilight.

Synonyms

• Dusk: The darker part of evening twilight.
• Gloaming: Evening twilight (literary).
• Nightfall: The onset of night; dusk.
• Decline: A period of decrease or deterioration (for the figurative sense).

Related Phrases

• Twilight years: The final years of a person's life.
  • She remained active and engaged throughout her twilight years.
• Twilight sleep: A state of light anesthesia (a specific medical/technical compound term).

Idioms

• "The twilight of the gods": A phrase often referring to a prophesied end of a pantheon or era, derived from mythology (e.g., Norse ).
  • The novel depicts a technological apocalypse as a kind of twilight of the gods.

Adjective

1. lighted by or as if by twilight
   • The dusky night rides down the sky/And ushers in the morn-Henry Fielding
   • the twilight glow of the sky
   • a boat on a twilit river

Noun

1. a condition of decline following successes
   • in the twilight of the empire
2. the diffused light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon but its rays are refracted by the atmosphere of the earth
3. the time of day immediately following sunset
   • he loved the twilight
   • they finished before the fall of night