different between gloom vs twilight

English

Etymology

From Middle English *gloom, *glom, from Old English gl?m (“gloaming, twilight, darkness”), from Proto-West Germanic *gl?m, from Proto-Germanic *gl?maz (“gleam, shimmer, sheen”), from Proto-Indo-European *??ley- (“to gleam, shimmer, glow”). The English word is cognate with Norwegian glom (“transparent membrane”), Scots gloam (“twilight; faint light; dull gleam”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?lu?m/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?lum/
• Rhymes: -u?m

Noun

gloom (usually uncountable, plural glooms)

1. Darkness, dimness, or obscurity.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, chapter 4, in Moonfleet:

     Here was a surprise, and a sad one for me, for I perceived that I had slept away a day, and that the sun was setting for another night. And yet it mattered little, for night or daytime there was no light to help me in this horrible place; and though my eyes had grown accustomed to the gloom, I could make out nothing to show me where to work.

2. A depressing, despondent, or melancholic atmosphere.
3. Cloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.
   • 1770, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents:

     A sullen gloom and furious disorder prevailed by fits.

4. A drying oven used in gunpowder manufacture.

Derived terms

• doom and gloom
• gloomies
• gloomily
• gloomy

Related terms

• gloam

Translations

Verb

gloom (third-person singular simple present glooms, present participle glooming, simple past and past participle gloomed)

1. (intransitive) To be dark or gloomy.
   • 1770, Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village

     The black gibbet glooms beside the way.

   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 189:

     Around all the dark forest gloomed.

2. (intransitive) To look or feel sad, sullen or despondent.
   • a. 1930, D. H. Lawrence, The Lovely Lady

     Ciss was a big, dark-complexioned, pug-faced young woman who seemed to be glooming about something.
3. (transitive) To render gloomy or dark; to obscure; to darken.

   • A black yew gloom'd the stagnant air.

4. (transitive) To fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Merlin and Vivien

     Such a mood as that which lately gloomed your fancy.

   • 1770, Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village

     What sorrows gloomed that parting day.

5. To shine or appear obscurely or imperfectly; to glimmer.

English

Etymology

From Middle English twilight, twyelyghte, equivalent to twi- (“double, half-”) +? light, literally ‘second light, half-light’. Cognate to Scots twa licht, twylicht, twielicht (“twilight”), Low German twilecht, twelecht (“twilight”), Dutch tweelicht (“twilight, dusk”), German Zwielicht (“twilight, dusk”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?twa?la?t/

Noun

twilight (countable and uncountable, plural twilights)

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. (astronomy) The time when the sun is less than 18° below the horizon.
4. Any faint light through which something is seen; an in-between or fading condition.
   • , Book IV, Chapter XIV

     The twilight […] of probability.

Synonyms

• (period between daylight and darkness): blue hour, gloaming; see also Thesaurus:twilight

Hyponyms

• (period between daylight and darkness): cockcrow, first light / evenfall, eventide; see also Thesaurus:dawn and Thesaurus:dusk

Hypernyms

• light

Hyponyms

• astronomical twilight
• civil twilight
• nautical twilight

Coordinate terms

• dawn (end of ~ in the morning)
• dusk (end of ~ in the evening)
• evening
• golden hour
• nightfall
• sundown

Derived terms

• twilight industry
• twilightish
• Twilight of the Gods
• twilight shift
• twilighty
• twilight years
• twilight zone
• twilit

Translations

Adjective

twilight (not comparable)

1. Pertaining to or resembling twilight; faintly illuminated; obscure.

See also

• crepuscular

Verb

twilight (third-person singular simple present twilights, present participle twilighting, simple past and past participle twilit or twilighted)

1. (transitive, poetic) To illuminate faintly.