noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The moment each evening when the sun disappears below the western horizon. countable, uncountable

   "at sunset"

2. 2
   the daily event of the sun sinking below the horizon wordnet
3. 3
   The changes in color of the sky before and after sunset. countable, uncountable
4. 4
   atmospheric phenomena accompanying the daily disappearance of the sun wordnet
5. 5
   The final period of the life of a person or thing. countable, figuratively, uncountable

   "one's sunset years"

Show 3 more definitions

6. 6
   the time in the evening at which the sun begins to fall below the horizon wordnet
7. 7
   A set termination date. attributive, countable, uncountable

   "The tax increase legislation included a sunset clause requiring renewal to prevent the tax increase from expiring."

8. 8
   The region where the sun sets; the west. countable, uncountable

Verb

1. 1
   To phase out. transitive

   "We’ll be sunsetting version 1.9 of the software shortly after releasing version 2.0 next quarter."

Adjective

1. 1
   providing for termination wordnet
2. 2
   of a declining industry or technology wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

nightfallsundownsundowntwilightlastbig sleep

Antonyms

All antonyms

risedaybreaksunrise

Example

More examples

"We could see the sunset from the window."

Etymology

From Middle English son-sett, Sonne set, equivalent to sun + set. In Gower's Confessio Amantis, before 1393.

Related phrases

Harlem sunsetMurray-sunsetSunset BeachSunset ParkSunset Stripride off into the sunsetsunset clausesunset cropsunset flipsunset industrysunset lawsunset moth

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.