Also called nimbus. a geometric shape, usually in the form of a disk, circle, ring, or rayed structure, traditionally representing a radiant light around or above the head of a divine or sacred personage, an ancient or medieval monarch, etc.
an atmosphere or quality of glory, majesty, sanctity, or the like.
The "profession" of a medieval lord cast a halo around him and made him a ruler of men.
Meteorology. any of a variety of bright circles or arcs centered on the sun or moon, caused by the refraction or reflection of light by ice crystals suspended in the earth's atmosphere and exhibiting prismatic coloration ranging from red inside to blue outside (distinguished from corona).
Astronomy. a spherical cloud of gas clusters and stars that form part of a spiral galaxy.
any of various other things resembling a halo, especially a lighter or differently colored area surrounding an object.
I think the scab was from some kind of bite, and now there's a halo around it with bruising.
Also called Cellini's halo. Heiligenschein.
an undesirable bright or dark ring surrounding an image on the fluorescent screen of a television tube, due to some fault either in transmission or reception.
indicating salt or the sea
halophyte
relating to or containing a halogen
halothane
a disc or ring of light around the head of an angel, saint, etc, as in painting or sculpture
the aura surrounding an idealized, famous, or admired person, thing, or event
a circle of light around the sun or moon, caused by the refraction of light by particles of ice
astronomy a spherical cloud of stars surrounding the Galaxy and other spiral galaxies
First recorded in 1555–65; from Latin, accusative of halōs “circle around the sun or moon,” from Greek hálōs “threshing floor; grain on a threshing floor; shield; halo”
< Greek, combining form of háls salt
A glowing light that circles something, like the moon or a person's head is a halo. Painters of religious art often put a halo around the heads of angels and saints. A halo is a symbol of holiness, represented by a circle or arc of light around the head of a saint or holy person. Any circle of light can be described as a halo, even in a non-religious context; sometimes you'll see a glowing halo of light around the moon, for example. The word halo also means "glory or majesty," a symbolic halo rather than a physical one. The Greek halos means "ring of light around the sun or moon."
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The featured object is NGC 6426, a globular cluster located in the outer halo of the Milky Way.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
The Halos have gone to halo, the Big A is now the Big L and, somewhere, a rally monkey weeps.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2026
The total car weight cannot be compared because of the increased mass of the modern safety systems, such as the halo head-protection structure.
From BBC ● May 14, 2026
A similar halo effect has lifted the entire chip sector, including Advanced Micro Devices, Micron Technology and Sandisk.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
I fashion them into a blond halo of tight curls, and create a cream wedding dress.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
Encircling the footprint of each roundhouse were "middens," haloes of rubbish dumped from the stilt village above, included broken pots, butchered animal bone, and "coprolites" or fossilised faeces.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 20, 2024
The glory that now haloes the vineyard valleys of Sonoma and Santa Ynez, Alexander and Edna, the Russian River, and other dales and vales, once belonged to Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2022
Accretion disks are fast-spinning haloes of matter that orbit around black holes at high speeds.
From Salon ● Nov. 18, 2021
Our advice is to not be impressed by these general haloes but instead to focus on specific credentials.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 8, 2020
His nose was squat and red, and he had lumpy white, bunched-up eyelids circling his small gray eyes like haloes of bacon fat.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
We should be hesitant to place halos around the heads of people we admire, just as we shouldn’t totally condemn those with whom we disagree.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
“I was there, and I was a pop star — my thing was wearing ornate halos all the time,” you might say.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2026
The high-speed motion of orbiting sensors increases the coupling between axion halos and nucleon spins, producing a tenfold sensitivity improvement compared with Earth-based dark matter searches.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 6, 2025
Mr. Lloyd’s buttery tone is set within soaring lines, circular loops and halos of sound from Mr. Sewell’s custom-made electric guitar, and answered by delicate figures from Mr. Moran’s piano.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2025
Then I’m the observer again—watching a girl being kissed by a boy, spring sun glistening around them, lighting their bodies in halos.
From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed
I’m not ashamed to admit that there have been times when those 32-ounce tubs just stare at me day after day, haloed by the refrigerator light, moving further from consumable and closer to petri dish.
From Salon ● Apr. 28, 2026
“The way her hijab haloed Nour’s head” gives her a saintly presence, “or so Jimmy thought.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
Angels pride was evident throughout the space, from the beer mirrors on the wall to the black plastic coaster stand adorned with a large red haloed “A.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2022
Bentley favors the golden hour, filming his human and equine characters in silhouette, haloed by burnished, amber light.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 18, 2022
Caravans of water-slicked black carriages lined the streets outside the city’s train stations, their red waiting lights haloed by the rain.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
She became slimmer, blonder, sleeker, her cheekbones carved by shadow, a golden nimbus haloing her hair.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 19, 2015
One of his plates showed the wounded gunman seated on the pavement, the girl clasping his head to her shoulder, the alert hands of policemen and detectives haloing the couple's heads.
From Time Magazine Archive
Her hair is a frizzy nest haloing her plump white face.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
Then I thought, how could this Doctor Gordon help me anyway, with a beautiful wife and beautiful children and a beautiful dog haloing him like the angels on a Christmas card?
From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
They weren’t solid gray, but filaments of a hundred different grays and blues and pearls, and they looked like reflections of light wavering on water, with the softest sunburst of amber haloing his pupils.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
