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:
The couple will still be on a high after all the festivities and luxuriating in the afterglow of the love — and cash — bestowed upon them.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 13, 2026
The cosmic microwave background, which is the faint afterglow left behind by the Big Bang, contains valuable information about the early universe.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 16, 2026
The afterglow of aristocratic grace, the poet noted, was obscured by the “rising tide of democracy, which invades and levels all things.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026
The dazzle of their outfits eclipsed the afterglow of the light.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2025
The family had gathered in the kitchen to celebrate the victory while the afterglow of Ben’s performance burned strongly in their memories.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
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 M'Pherson, J. G.
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.
