half-light

American  

[haf-lahyt, hahf-] / ˈhæfˌlaɪt, ˈhɑf- /

noun

1. light that is about half its customary brightness, or that is partially dimmed or obscured.

   the half-light of early dawn; a room in half-light.

---

half-light British  

noun

1. a dim light, as at dawn or dusk

---

Etymology

Origin of half-light

First recorded in 1615–25

Example Sentences

Even in the half-light, the words You'll Never Walk Alone, the Rodgers and Hammerstein song forever linked with Liverpool Football Club, were unmistakable.

From BBC • May 9, 2023

Statues of Charlie Brown, Lucy and the ever-gleeful Snoopy stood amid redwoods in the half-light beyond the old Kress building.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 21, 2022

Somaliland’s half-light existence as an unrecognized state has complicated its pandemic response.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 28, 2022

The time period is that mystical half-light of history when Scandinavia was little more than scattered Norse villages; when wisdom was woven with superstition much as the land is interlaced with fjords.

From New York Times • Jan. 7, 2022

She liked the campus, grave with knowledge, the Gothic buildings with their vine-laced walls, and the way everything transformed, in the half-light of night, into a ghostly scene.

From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Related Words

• dusk
• sunset