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Darkness vs Dusk - What's the difference?

darkness | dusk | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between darkness and dusk

is that darkness is the state of being dark; lack of light while dusk is a period of time occurring at the end of the day during which the sun sets.

As a verb dusk is

to begin to lose light or whiteness; to grow dusk.

As an adjective dusk is

tending to darkness or blackness; moderately dark or black; dusky.

darkness

English

Alternative forms

* darckness (obsolete) * darkeness (obsolete)

Noun

  • (lb) The state of being dark; lack of light.
  • :
  • *1912 , (Willa Cather),
  • *:Over everything was darkness and thick silence, and the smell of dust and sunflowers.
  • *
  • *:Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness , but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
  • (lb) Gloom.
  • (lb) The product of being dark.
  • (lb) The state or quality of reflecting little light, of tending to a blackish or brownish color.
  • :
  • (lb) Evilness, lack of understanding or compassion, reference to death or suffering.
  • Antonyms

    * lightness

    dusk

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A period of time occurring at the end of the day during which the sun sets.
  • A darkish colour.
  • * Dryden
  • Whose dusk set off the whiteness of the skin.

    Synonyms

    * sunset * sundown * evenfall * smokefall * vespers

    Antonyms

    * dawn

    Hyponyms

    * gloaming * twilight

    See also

    *

    See also

    * crepuscular

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to begin to lose light or whiteness; to grow dusk
  • * , More Poems , XXXIII, lines 25-27
  • I see the air benighted
    And all the dusking dales,
    And lamps in England lighted,
  • To make dusk.
  • * Holland
  • After the sun is up, that shadow which dusketh the light of the moon must needs be under the earth.

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Tending to darkness or blackness; moderately dark or black; dusky.
  • * Milton
  • A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades.

    Anagrams

    *