Tweenlight

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The period between dusk and nightfall; twilight. dialectal, rare, uncountable

    "Faith, sir, she says that Fergus has had an outforce lying in the hills yonder these three days, and waits an opportunity of surprising the fort — that they had moved down this tweenlight, and were sweeping along by the glens two hours ago; [...]"

Example

More examples

"Faith, sir, she says that Fergus has had an outforce lying in the hills yonder these three days, and waits an opportunity of surprising the fort — that they had moved down this tweenlight, and were sweeping along by the glens two hours ago; [...]"

Etymology

From Old English twēonlēoht (“twilight”, literally “double-/doubtful-/uncertain-light”). The alternative spellings are due to a misassociation with between, erroneously interpreting tweenlight as if it were a shortening of between-light.

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