shadow

1 partial darkness due to the obstruction of light rays <the valley was in shadow> Synonyms dusk, penumbra, shadiness, shade, umbraRelated Words blackness, dimness, duskiness, gloom, gloominess, murkiness, obscurity, semidarkness, somberness; cloudinessNear Antonyms brightness, brilliance, effulgence, illumination, incandescence, light, lightness, lucidity, lucidness, luminance, luminosity, luminousness, radiance, radiancy

2 shadows pl  a time or place of little or no light <lurking in the shadows> Synonyms black, blackness, candlelight, darkness, dusk, gloaming, gloom, murk, night, semidarkness, shade, shadows, twilight, umbraRelated Words midnight; blackout, brownout, dimout; shadiness, umbrage; dullness (also dulness), somberness; cloudiness, fogginess, haziness, mistiness, murkiness; dimness, faintness, gloominess, grayness, paleness; half-lightNear Antonyms moonlight, starlight, sunlight; effulgence, radiance, radiancy, shine, sunshine; incandescence, luminance, luminescence, luminosity, luminousnessAntonyms blaze, brightness, brilliance, day, daylight, glare, glow, light, lightness

3 a tiny often physical indication of something lost or vanished <a run-down mansion that is only a shadow of its former glory> Synonyms echo, ghost, relic, vestige, traceRelated Words memento, remembrance, reminder; artifact; afterimage, aftertaste; balance, corpse, hangover, leftover, oddment, remainder, remnant, scrap; dreg(s), leavings, remain(s), residual, residue, rest

4 a very small amount <not even a shadow of a doubt about the defendant's guilt> Synonyms ace, bit, crumb, dab, dram, driblet, glimmer, hint, lick, little, mite, nip, ounce, peanuts, ray, scintilla, scruple, shade, particle, shred, skosh, smack, smell, smidgen (also smidgeon or smidgin or smidge), snap, soupçon, spark, spatter, speck, splash, spot, sprinkling, strain, streak, suspicion, tad, touch, traceRelated Words hoot, iota, jot, minim, minimum, modicum, semblance, syllable, tittle, vestige, whit; atom, dot, fleck, flyspeck, grain, granule, molecule, morsel, mote, nubbin, patch, scrap; dash, drop, pinch; part, portion, section; bite, nibble, taste; handful, scattering, smatter, smattering; dose, shot; chip, flake, fragment, shard, shiver, sliver, smithereens, splinter; shred, tatter; clipping, paring, shavingNear Antonyms abundance, barrel, boatload, bucket, bundle, bushel, deal, fistful, gobs, heaps, lashings (also lashins) [chiefly British], loads, lot, mass, mess, mountain, much, oodles, passel, peck, pile, plenty, potful, profusion, quantity, raft, reams, scads, stack, wad, wealth; volume; bonanza, embarrassment, excess, overabundance, overage, overflow, overkill, overmuch, oversupply, superabundance, superfluity, surfeit, surplus; chunk, hunk, lump, slab

5 the soul of a dead person thought of especially as appearing to living people <rumors of a shadow haunting the castle> Synonyms apparition, bogey (also bogie or bogy), familiar spirit, hant [dialect], haunt [chiefly dialect], materialization, phantasm (also fantasm), phantom, poltergeist, shade, ghost, specter (or spectre), spirit, spook, sprite, vision, visitant, wraithRelated Words angel, daimon, familiar, genie, genius, jinni (or jinn also djinni or djinn), shaitan; double, doppelgänger (or doppelganger), fetch; lemures, manes; incubus, lamia, succubus, vampire, zombie (also zombi); cacodemon, demon (or daemon), devil, fiend, ghoul, imp

6 an overspreading element that produces an atmosphere of gloom <the husband's adulterous affair had cast over their marriage a shadow from which there was no escape> Synonyms darkness, pall, cloudRelated Words fog, haze, mist, murk, penumbra, umbra; midnight, night; mantle, shroud, veil