TWILIGHT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does twilight mean? 

• TWILIGHT (noun)
  The noun TWILIGHT has 3 senses:

1. the time of day immediately following sunset

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. a condition of decline following successes

  Familiarity information: TWILIGHT used as a noun is uncommon.

• TWILIGHT (adjective)
  The adjective TWILIGHT has 1 sense:

1. lighted by or as if by twilight

  Familiarity information: TWILIGHT used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TWILIGHT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The time of day immediately following sunset

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

crepuscle; crepuscule; dusk; evenfall; fall; gloam; gloaming; nightfall; twilight

Context example:

they finished before the fall of night

Hypernyms ("twilight" is a kind of...):

hour; time of day (clock time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "twilight"):

night (a shortening of nightfall)

Holonyms ("twilight" is a part of...):

eve; even; evening; eventide (the latter part of the day (the period of decreasing daylight from late afternoon until nightfall))

Sense 2

Meaning:

The diffused light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon but its rays are refracted by the atmosphere of the earth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Hypernyms ("twilight" is a kind of...):

light; visible light; visible radiation ((physics) electromagnetic radiation that can produce a visual sensation)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A condition of decline following successes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

in the twilight of the empire

Hypernyms ("twilight" is a kind of...):

declination; decline (a condition inferior to an earlier condition; a gradual falling off from a better state)

• TWILIGHT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lighted by or as if by twilight

Synonyms:

dusky; twilight; twilit

Context example:

a boat on a twilit river

Similar:

dark (devoid of or deficient in light or brightness; shadowed or black)

 Context examples 

Twilight drew down and night came on, and White Fang lay by his mother's side.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Jo was alone in the twilight, lying on the old sofa, looking at the fire, and thinking.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was twilight when we reached the cottage.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The researchers suggest this might explain why humans perceive the color blue during twilight hours.

(New color vision pathway unveiled, NIH)

It was already twilight when we reached the scene of our problem.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was dawn by three in the morning, and twilight lingered till nine at night.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

It opened slowly: a figure came out into the twilight and stood on the step; a man without a hat: he stretched forth his hand as if to feel whether it rained.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

So, as twilight deepened, gladly and at the same time reluctantly, I brought the Ghost up on the wind.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting old place.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He looked into every pool of water vainly, until, as the long twilight came on, he discovered a solitary fish, the size of a minnow, in such a pool.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)