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twilight hour

twilight hour

1 3.5
The time after the sun goes down when the sky is partly light
  • noun
translation icon : hora del crepúsculo
  • Bad Belly spent the twilight hours stripping bark from the trees.

Examples

  • Night sets begin before sundown or during the twilight hours, while herds of dolphins can still be seen, extend into darkness, and are usually completed before midnight.

    Academic text (1992)
  • Data were divided into night sets (sets started during daylight or twilight hours but with any portion of the backdown occurring in darkness) and day sets (sets started during daylight hours and backdown procedures completed in daylight or twilight hours).

    Academic text (1992)
  • I thought it might be useful to you in the twilight hours.

  • In New Orleans, it starts during the twilight hours in late April.

    Academic text (2003)
  • He spent his twilight hours reading scrolls from the senate.

  • At the Haleakala Observatory, the adaptive optics system was used primarily in twilight hours.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Years after the incident, in the twilight hours of the short winter days, the shepherds would sit with their families in their narrow stone huts, listening to the bleating of the sheep, and tell of the crazy she-devil with the red hair and the giant breasts, who boded ill to men.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • Data were divided into night sets (sets started during daylight or twilight hours but with any portion of the backdown occurring in darkness) and day sets (sets started during daylight hours and backdown procedures completed in daylight or twilight hours).

    Academic text (1992)
  • During the twilight hour, the sky is painted with hues of orange and purple.

  • Many creatures venture out to feed during the twilight hour, when the light begins to fade.

Synonyms

evening
vstwilight hour
1.0

The part of the day from late afternoon until night

is narrower, focusing on the brief partly lit period after sunset
sunset
vstwilight hour
259 1.0

The time in the evening when the sun goes below the horizon and daylight fades

covers the later period after that when darkness is approaching
dusk
vstwilight hour
75 1.0

The time just after the sun goes down before it is fully dark

is the same period emphasizing the partly lit sky
sundown
vstwilight hour
66 1.2

The time in the evening when the sun goes below the horizon

refers to the following period when the sky remains partly lit
nightfall
vstwilight hour
65 2.1

The time in the evening when it becomes dark and night begins

describes the phase before this moment while sky is still lit
twilight
vstwilight hour
36 2.4

Soft light in the sky just before sunrise or after sunset

refers only to the evening period when the sky is partly lit
eve
vstwilight hour
  • Archaic
3 1.1

The latter part of the day when it becomes dark

is more specific, naming the partly lit phase after sunset
gloaming
vstwilight hour
  • Literature
2 9.9

The soft light after sunset before it becomes dark

is the same evening phase focusing on sky still partly lit
sunfall
vstwilight hour
1 2.7

The time of day when the sun goes below the horizon

is used for the continuous lit phase after that until full dark
evenfall
vstwilight hour
  • Archaic
9.9

The time just after sunset when the sky gets dark

is the same span but described as a gentle partly lit hour
predark
vstwilight hour
8.2

The time just before it becomes dark

highlights that same fading light between sunset and full dark

Antonyms

131 1.0

The time when the sun is up

A situation with no light at all

How Bright

day
1.0
morning
1.0
dawn
386 1.0
twilight hour
1 3.5
night
1.0

Surface Forms

twilight hour singular

Morphology

twilight + hour

The phrase 'twilight hour' is directly compositional: 'twilight' names the time of dim evening light and 'hour' denotes a time period, so together they mean an hour during twilight. There is no idiomatic or metaphorical shift and similar constructions exist cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words would understand the meaning.

Etymology

The expression twilight hour paints a picture of the time after the sun goes down but before it is fully dark, when the sky still has soft light called twilight. That's why the phrase means the calm, partly lit hour 'between sunset and full darkness'.