twilight

noun

twi·​light ˈtwī-ˌlīt 

often attributive

1

: the light from the sky between full night and sunrise or between sunset and full night produced by diffusion of sunlight through the atmosphere and its dust

also : a time of twilight

2

a

: an intermediate state that is not clearly defined

lived in the twilight of neutrality

—Newsweek

b

: a period of decline

Synonyms

• black
• blackness
• candlelight
• dark
• darkness
• dusk
• gloaming
• gloom
• murk
• night
• semidarkness
• shade
• shadows
• umbra

Examples of twilight in a Sentence

The sun set and twilight fell.

stumbled around the twilight of the shuttered room, unable to see where she was going

Recent Examples on the Web

Their paths crossed again when Slot returned to Zwolle in the twilight of his playing days after spells at NAC Breda and Sparta Rotterdam. —James Pearce, New York Times, 24 Apr. 2025

The ostensible reason: Benedict didn’t want his physical deterioration to paralyze the church the way John Paul II’s Parkinson’s disease did during the twilight of a papacy that lasted more than a quarter of a century. —Howard Chua-Eoan, Mercury News, 22 Apr. 2025

White boulders shape-shifted in the twilight, and the sound of a calving glacier ricocheted like a gunshot between the mountains. —Chloe Berge, Travel + Leisure, 13 Mar. 2025

The species is nocturnal, hunting its prey during twilight and typically consuming it by morning. —Scott Travers, Forbes, 9 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing twilight

• twilight glow
• twilight world
• twilight zone

Rhymes for twilight

• affright
• airtight
• albite
• alight
• alright
• aplite
• aright
• bainite
• birthright
• bobwhite
• bornite
• bullfight

Kids Definition

twilight

noun

twi·​light ˈtwī-ˌlīt 

: the period or the light from the sky between full night and sunrise or between sunset and full night