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Evening vs Twilight - What's the difference?

evening | twilight | Synonyms |

Twilight is a coordinate term of evening.



As nouns the difference between evening and twilight

is that evening is the time of the day between dusk and night, when it gets dark while twilight is the soft light in the sky seen before the rising and (especially) after the setting of the sun, occasioned by the illumination of the earth’s atmosphere by the direct rays of the sun and their reflection on the earth.

As a verb evening

is present participle of lang=en.

As an adjective twilight is

pertaining to or resembling twilight.

evening

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) ), corresponding to '' + ''-ing .

Noun

(en noun)
  • The time of the day between dusk and night, when it gets dark.
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)
  • , title= Geothermal Energy , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.}}
  • The time of the day between the approximate time of midwinter dusk and midnight (compare afternoon); the period after the end of regular office working hours.
  • *
  • *:At half-past nine on this Saturday evening', the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every ' evening , for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
  • *
  • , section=chapter 2, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.}}
  • (lb) A concluding time period; a point in time near the end of something; the beginning of the end of something.
  • :
  • Derived terms
    * evening dress * evening gown * evening grosbeak * evening prayer * evening primrose * evening star * evening trumpet flower * eveningwear * evening wrap * good evening * this evening
    See also
    *

    Etymology 2

    Inflected forms.

    Verb

    (head)
  • twilight

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The soft light in the sky seen before the rising and (especially) after the setting of the sun, occasioned by the illumination of the earth’s atmosphere by the direct rays of the sun and their reflection on the earth.
  • :
  • The time when this light is visible; the period between daylight and darkness.
  • :
  • *
  • *:At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.
  • (lb) The time when the sun is less than 18° below the horizon.
  • Any faint light through which something is seen; an in-between or fading condition.
  • *(John Locke) (1632-1705)
  • *:The twilight of probability.
  • Synonyms

    * evenfall, eventide, gloaming

    Coordinate terms

    * evening * golden hour * nightfall * sundown

    Hyponyms

    * dawn * dusk

    Derived terms

    * astronomical twilight * civil twilight * nautical twilight * twilightish * twilighty * twilight years * twilight zone

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Pertaining to or resembling twilight.
  • O’er the twilight groves and dusky caves. —(Alexander Pope).

    See also

    * crepuscular