Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🌗 Moon phase 💅 Nail base shape
half-moon

half-moon

1 2.6
A time when half of the Moon appears lit by the Sun
  • noun
  • /hæf muːn/
translation icon : cuarto de luna
  • The wind from Lake Michigan had cleared the sky, and a half moon lit the towers of the city.
  • light of the half-moon
  • half-moon rose
  • half-moon hangs

Now we know that the moon goes through phases, we see full moon, Half Moon, quarter moon, Crescent moon, new moon.

Examples

  • A half moon was pushing against the blackness of the eastern sky.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • The half-moon, draped by clouds, cast an uneven light over the dark landscape of the marsh.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • So right now we're in the Half Moon stage.

  • Had you thought about it, Chuck, When you see a Half Moon in the sky, right?

  • Above the hedge hangs a half moon and a few stars, and this seems to promise calm.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The air was clear and bitterly cold, and the thin snow on the ground was lit by a half moon.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • The half moon was up in a star-flecked sky, giving more than enough light for Perrin's eyes.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Tonight the air is cool and fresh; a half moon splinters the dark river as waves sound off noisily.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Where they were silhouetted by the light of the half-moon.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • On the night of the half-moon, the landscape was bathed in a soft, silver glow.

Synonyms

first quarter
vshalf-moon
  • Specialized
20 3.2

The time when the Moon looks half lit about one week after the new moon

is the same half-lit phase but can occur earlier or later in the cycle
last quarter
vshalf-moon
  • Specialized
4 4.1

Half the Moon is lit when it comes after a full moon and before a new moon

is the same half-lit phase but can occur earlier or later in the cycle

How Illuminated

full moon
116 1.2
gibbous
  • Specialized
2 8.8
half-moon
1 2.6
crescent
1 3.9
new moon
9 2.8

Surface Forms

half-moon singular
half-moons plural

Morphology

half-moon = half + moon (transparent) = half + moon

A literal descriptive compound referring to the Moon when half of its visible disk is illuminated.

Etymology

Half-moon comes from the parts half and moon because, in this phase, one side of the Moon is lit and the visible shape looks like a half circle, so we call that phase a half-moon.