afterglow
Americannoun
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the glow left after a light has disappeared, such as that sometimes seen after sunset
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the glow of an incandescent metal after the source of heat has been removed
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physics luminescence persisting on the screen of a cathode-ray tube or in a gas-discharge tube after the power supply has been disconnected
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a trace, impression, etc, of past emotion, brilliance, etc
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of afterglow
Explanation
An afterglow is a strip of rose-colored light in the sky that you sometimes see after the sun goes down. You should look for the afterglow after you watch the sunset. While an afterglow is actually caused by dust in the atmosphere, the radiant, glowing effect in the sky is much more beautiful than this makes it sound. You can also use the word afterglow in a figurative way, to describe the way you feel after something really wonderful happens to you: "I basked in the afterglow that followed my successful opening night on Broadway."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
One promising technique relies on the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, which occurs when energetic particles inside galaxy clusters scatter radiation from the cosmic microwave background, the faint afterglow of the Big Bang.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026
Maybe it’s embedded human instinct, an afterglow of developing self-awareness of our own mortality, to consider existential risks.
From Salon ● Sep. 16, 2026
Infantino had been basking in the afterglow of the largest ever World Cup involving 48 teams until his plans divided the sport.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
He might have sounded accommodating in the afterglow of his trip, but U.S. officials say nothing was surrendered in the summit itself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
At higher levels it became purple, and this purple afterglow persisted for what seemed a long time.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
For my thesis, I set out to find afterglows without relying on a trigger from a satellite.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 17, 2020
Still, even with two afterglows in hand, I cannot definitively answer the questions I originally set out to answer.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 17, 2020
And finally, right at the end of graduate school, two actual cosmological afterglows, one of which turned out to have an associated gamma-ray burst.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 17, 2020
Astronomers looked fruitlessly for afterglows from short-duration gamma-ray bursts found by BeppoSAX and other satellites.
From Textbooks ● Oct. 13, 2016
A foreglow like that I have very rarely seen, and its existence was a puzzle to me till I studied Dr. Aitken’s explanation of the afterglows after sunset.
From Meteorology or Weather Explained by J. G. M'Pherson
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