dusk

DUSK/dʌsk/

5 meanings of dusk

1
after sunsetnoununcountable
The part of the evening just after the sun goes down, when the sky still has some light.
Like the soft, gray light that fills the sky just before night.
The street lights come on at dusk every evening.
We walked home through the fields just before dusk.
UsageSay at dusk.
Similartwilight, nightfall, sundown, gloaming
Oppositedawn, daybreak, sunrise
2
gloomnoununcountable
The state of being somewhat dark or shadowy.
Like how a room feels dim when the curtains stay closed.
A faint dusk hung over the forest floor where little light reached.
The dusk of the closed room made it hard to read.
Similargloom, darkness, dimness, murk
Oppositebrightness, light
3
dark colornoununcountable
A color that is fairly dark.
Whose dusk set off the whiteness of the skin.
1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite”Here, dusk means a fairly dark color.
Note

Less common meanings

4
adjectivearchaic
Somewhat dark, or close to black.
A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades.
1671, John Milton, “The First Book”
5
verbrare
To become dark, or to make something darker.
I see the air benighted And all the dusking dales, And lamps in England lighted,
1936, Alfred Edward Housman, More Poems

Practice

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Origin

It comes from Old English 'dox', meaning dark or swarthy, going back to a word meaning dark or smoky.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

Dusk descends from Old English dox through Middle English. en.wiktionary.org
Old English dox means dark or swarthy. en.wiktionary.org
The earlier reconstructed ancestor means dark or smoky. en.wiktionary.org