crepuscular
Americanadjective
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of, relating to, or resembling twilight; dim; indistinct.
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Zoology. appearing or active in the twilight, as certain bats and insects.
adjective
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of or like twilight; dim
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(of certain insects, birds, and other animals) active at twilight or just before dawn
Etymology
Origin of crepuscular
First recorded in 1660–70; crepuscule + -ar 1
Explanation
The adjective crepuscular describes anything that's related to twilight, like the crepuscular glow of the dimming light on a lake as darkness falls. If the light outside is fading, you can call it crepuscular. Anything that resembles dusk, or happens at that time of day, is crepuscular, whether it's gloomy indoor light or the sky at twilight. Some animals are also crepuscular: they tend to be most active in the evening. The Latin root word says it all — crepusculum means "twilight."
Vocabulary lists containing crepuscular
There's A Word for That
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Celestial Words To Mark The Winter Solstice
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Lights Out: Synonyms for "Dark"
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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.
The catalog’s full-page reproductions, in spectacular colors or crepuscular monochromes, are frequently transporting.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
Over on YouTube, their crepuscular 2005 album track Take Me Somewhere Nice has been streamed 85 million times.
From BBC • Jan. 28, 2025
The wolf ignites a crepuscular uncertainty about what’s fact and what’s fable, about how to differentiate between bared teeth and lolling tongue.
From Washington Post • Feb. 23, 2023
His color palettes, which can range from brilliant orange and blue to crepuscular pinks and purples, seem to evoke land, sky and light in its myriad reflective and refractive states.
From Los Angeles Times • May 12, 2022
Colonel Korn was an untidy disdainful man with an oily skin and deep, hard lines running almost straight down from his nose between his crepuscular jowls and his square, clefted chin.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
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.
