Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or like twilight; dim: "the period's crepuscular charm and a waning of the intense francophilia that used to shape the art market” ( Wall Street Journal).
- adj. Zoology Becoming active at twilight or before sunrise, as do bats and certain insects and birds.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pertaining to or resembling twilight; glimmering.
- In zoology, flying or appearing in the twilight or evening, or before sunrise: as, the crepuscular or nocturnal Lepidoptera.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Pertaining to twilight; glimmering; hence, imperfectly clear or luminous.
- adj. (Zoöl.) Flying in the twilight or evening, or before sunrise; -- said certain birds and insects.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. like twilight; dim.
Etymologies
- From Latin creper ("dark, dusky"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“As I made a mental note of Hitchens' casual use of the word "crepuscular," the Maryland professor grumbled in my direction.”
“Garrett, does the word crepuscular do anything for you?”
“You might call it a dreamscape, but they say no, it's "crepuscular" - it's the slippery moment just after you wake up, between sleep and wakefulness.”
“Boars are crepuscular, that is they forage from dusk until dawn and they are the only hoofed animals known to dig burrows.”
“Maybe he was trying to find that "crepuscular" place where left and right brain coexist in a harmonious union.”
“People view Mike Nelson's installation which turns the British Pavilion into a 'disorienting, dusty, crepuscular world full of labyrinthine passages'.”
“Nelson's already much talked-about installation, which opens to the public this Saturday, takes the visitor through the front door of the elegant, colonnaded 19th-century former tearoom that forms Britain's official pavilion and plunges them into a disorienting, dusty, crepuscular world full of labyrinthine passages, false walls and shoulder-hunchingly low ceilings.”
“Two members of staff were busy with customers and two more were assembling glossy black tables for huge tellys in the crepuscular rear of the shop.”
“A haze of cement dust blanketed the wreckage, softening sharp edges and muffling all sounds in its dreary crepuscular light.”
“Thus Jerome emphasises the crepuscular setting, and a certain psychic distance opens up between shroud and sudarium.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘crepuscular’.
-
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...
-
Words
phantasmagoria, eviscerate, avast, simulacrum, varicose, oblique, gestalt, ersatz, vernal, vivace, stellate, synecdoche and 321 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
Silly-sounding words
Serious words that sound silly when you say them
philosophunculist, argy-bargy, Labradoodle, shittah, shittim, floccinaucinihili..., succedaneum, honorificabilitud..., fag-ma-fuff, buffarilla, yazzihamper, mammothrept and 140 more...
-
From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
-
phrontistery - c
from phrontistery.info
czardas, cytometer, cytology, cytheromania, cystoscope, cystolith, cyrenaic, cypseline, cyprinoid, cyphonism, cynophobia, cytogenesis and 1298 more...
-
Poe
dark descriptors
sepulchral, unutterable, decrepitude, abjection, abasement, lugubrious, moribund, recrudescence, prevaricator, doppelgänger, ululation, crepuscular and 11 more...
-
Used
halcyon, ineluctable, inspissated, incarnadine, askance, demur, saltation, requisite, effusive, specious, liminality, indomitable and 114 more...
-
Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
-
Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
-
January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
-
Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
-
July
vapulate, cattywampus, oneiric, petrichor, dithyramb, lea, dreadnaught, haruspex, caryatid, stentorian, cynosure, lunula and 22 more...
-
There's a word for it
catkin, pastiche, badonkadonk, biome, omphaloscopy, pogonophobia, reptation, anathema, xyst, commodify, commoditize, monetize and 68 more...
-
Misanthropic
Lovecraft, Lovecraftian, bete noire
Lovecraftian, bête noire, festinate, hathos, misogynist, foredoom, decorticate, malingerer, nemophilist, mendicant, pendragon, stultify and 27 more...
-
My favorites
foible, sidereal, amygdala, woodnote, cogitate, silvern, ollalieberry, ramify, diaphanous, surreality, myopia, subcelestial and 75 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for crepuscular.
Dan337 See also “crepuscle”, “crepuscular arch”, “crepuscular ray”, “crepuscule”, “crepusculine”, “crepusculous”, and “crepusculum”. Jan 26, 2011
magma “…Our life is but the crepuscular memory, or crepuscular reflection, doubtlessly distorted and mutilated, of an irrecoverable process.” - Jorge Luis Borges Mar 26, 2010
jmjarmstrong JM is at his crepuscular best when the edges of objects become indistinct. Mar 10, 2010
oroboros Gloaming Aug 5, 2009
sangeevj twilight May 7, 2009
elgiad007 Before learning the correct pronunciation, this word reminded me of a husky crepe. Nov 11, 2008
tinevalen crepuscular...something akin to muscular, yet a bit crusty and alien...
tinevalen Nov 11, 2008
emmy Crepuscular Dawn by Paul Virilio. Read it. Feb 23, 2008
chained_bear I like this word, but it always reminds me of cells--like "corpuscle" or "muscular"--or even "testicular."
If that ruins it for anyone, I'm sorryish. ;) Oct 23, 2007
npydyuan A fine feature of "crepuscular" is its ability to signify dusk OR dawn. The in-between times, the secret times.... Sep 16, 2007
samoritan In a strongly-worked essay on gun violence, Harlan Ellison once referred to Ronald Reagan as a "crepuscular old fart". May 17, 2007
polymorph One theory of the evolution of the human brain is that our distant crepuscular ancestors needed sharp vision to avoid predators. This lead to increased brain capacity necessary to process the higher image resolution that their enlarged optic nerve was delivering (I imagine a wide-eyed lemur-like creature constantly scanning its environment searching for danger in the twilight). Apr 8, 2007
beee I like this word. It is the inspiration for the last name of the heroine of "Dos Palabras," a short story by Isabel Allende. In Spanish it sounds quite romantic, but yes, I have to agree that the English pronunciation is less agreeable. Feb 15, 2007
valse I do agree this is a strange word...but it matches a pretty strange time of day. That beautiful, eerie glow and the darkness slowly creeping up. Of course, it can also be used to describe insects and other animals that come out around that time... Jan 4, 2007
tree odd, i just wrote this as a comment to someone on livejournal: the word crepuscular brings to mind rabbits, so for me it's a lovely, faintly sad word - sad because my bunnies have passed. it makes me think of twitching noses and shadows. Dec 27, 2006
billifer It reminds me of seafood. Crepuscular... crustacean.... Same thing. :) Dec 22, 2006
hanru Agreed. Twilight deserves a more pleasant-sounding word... Dec 9, 2006
emily_morine I'm not sure whether I love crepuscular or hate it. I love that there's a word for this concept, but the actual word itself seems more descriptive of an infected, peeling scab. Dec 8, 2006