Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A rosy glow that suffuses snow-covered mountain peaks at dawn or dusk on a clear day.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The glow upon the Alps; a peculiar reflection of sunlight from their snowy heights, after the sun has disappeared to the valleys, or just before daybreak; the last or first rays of the sun among the Alps, casting a rich purple tint, an effect sometimes heightened by a certain amount of humidity in the atmosphere.
Wiktionary
- n. A rosy or reddish glow seen near sunset or sunrise on the summits of mountains, especially snow covered mountains.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A reddish glow seen near sunset or sunrise on the summits of mountains; specif., a reillumination sometimes observed after the summits have passed into shadow, supposed to be due to a curving downward (refraction) of the light rays from the west resulting from the cooling of the air.
Etymologies
- A calque of German Alpenglühen, from Alpen ("Alps") + glühen ("to glow"). (Wiktionary)
- Partial translation of German Alpenglühen : Alpen, Alps + glühen, to glow. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The sun was sliding toward the horizon, throwing beautiful but alarming alpenglow on the mountains and valleys below.”
“Amber mists, a cloaked old man with a staff, a cluster of flamingos standing in the alpenglow—a vision so steeped in kitsch you could die just by buying the postcard.”
“As the alpenglow died and darkness tightened, they settled by their haul bags on the dirt beneath an overhang.”
“There were probably four more hours before sunset, and then another hour of alpenglow after that.”
“There are two stages to alpenglow, a first surge that waxes and wanes, fooling amateur photographers into stowing away their cameras, and then a sudden short-lived second rush of colors.”
“Peach-colored alpenglow illuminated the great peaks, giving hint of the sun's impending presence.”
“The eastern slopes of Erebus were violet at first, and then they were bathe in rosy pink alpenglow and, between two and three o'clock, when the sun rose above WindVane Hill, they became sunflower yellow.”
“The volcano did not shine or sparkle in the false alpenglow.”
“The lower ranges were forested, as was the valley between, and there was a redmauve alpenglow on the great peak that rose from the head of the valley.”
“The lower ranges were forested, as was the valley between, and there was a red-mauve alpenglow on the great peak that rose from the head of the valley.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘alpenglow’.
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 636 more...
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Up In The Air @ Wordnik
List of words, terms, and phrases pertaining to or referencing anything that lives, traverses, moves in, uses, or otherwise occupies the space above the ground we walk on. Words and phrases contain...
aeroallergen, aerial, aerial mapping, aerial root, aerobe, aerobiology, aerobioscope, aelophilous, anemotropism, anemoclastic, anafront, antitrades and 273 more...
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Rare Words - A
Not just rare words, but thousands of RARE WORDS WITH DEFINITIONS.
If you want to see the definitions, too, go to
http://phrontistery.i...aba, abacinate, abactor, abaculus, abaft, abampere, abapical, abarticular, abasement, abasia, abask, abatis and 1214 more...
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phrontistery - a
from phrontistery.info
aba, abacinate, abactor, abaculus, abaft, abampere, abasia, abask, abb, abba, abbatial, abra and 1214 more...
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Sound Sex
taciturn, deflower, recursive, parapraxis, comitative, atelic, awkward, eccentric, libidinous, astereognosis, aloof, moonglade and 50 more...
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Sun Words
heliotrope, perihelion, heliocentric, heliograph, aphelion, heliosphere, heliosheath, heliopause, heliophysics, heliotail, heliocentrism, helioseismology and 50 more...
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Alpen-
Everything sounds better when you add an alpen- to it.
alpenglow, alpenstock, alpenhorn, alpenrose, Alpengeist, Alpenglühen, Alpental, Alpenrhein, AlpenKammerMusik, Alpenvorland, alpenpeak, alpen flute and 5 more...
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Earth-Friendly Organic Produce
An Ecosystem of earth/life-related words.
blueskycloudform, sojourn, reuse, reduce, compostable, habitat, ecology, bionomics, Eco-Art, sustainability, forest garden, biosystems and 47 more...
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For the sound of it
delineate, ubiquarian, abaculus, gelid, stem-winder, alpenglow, ligature, corpuscle, corroboree, columnar, cuboidal, squamous and 10 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, A
abaculus, abacus, abaft, abarticular, abbreviate, abeyance, abiding, anthocyanin, antemeridian, arcane, adjure, adduce and 418 more...
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the most beautiful
velvet, wainwright, susurrous, nutmeg, pegasus, tintinnabular, gossamer, lyricism, rococo, townlet, prince, nymph and 139 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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Because I like them: A -- B
abacinate, aberdevine, ablepsy, abuccinate, acarology, acipenserine, abactor, adamantine, addressin, aeoline, ahimsa, agelast and 151 more...
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Mollusque's miscellany
A mixture of words that I like or have commented on, along with ones parked here so they'd be listed somewhere or remind me of lists I want to make.
oranger, monographer, preoccupied, bu, bobization, coinventor, tetrapyloctomy, borgmannian, suspercollate, manhug, mancrush, obituarist and 604 more...
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Resource
katabatic, clerestory, haslet, alpenglow, purl, scumble, jessant, spavined, wayworn, creach, dottle, solferino and 165 more...
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Wordnik Notebooks
All the words from the cover of the Wordnik notebook.
A few words appear twice: frass, cruet, luna, thalweg, and possibly some more.
Careful: Contains spoilers!spilth, frass, fomite, rux, worricow, alizarin, mundungus, parthenocarpy, jib, whinyard, weisure, nimiety and 217 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for alpenglow.

dimã©lion (n): reddish light at sunset or sunrise on mountaintops, esp. occuring before appearance or after disappearance of sun. Nov 16, 2008