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  1. gegenschein love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A faint glowing spot in the sky, exactly opposite the position of the sun. Also called counterglow.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The large, faintly luminous patch on the ecliptic opposite to the sun, supposed to be apart of the zodiacal light. Its explanation is still uncertain, though it is generally believed to be due to reflection from minute meteoric particles at a distance greater than the length of the earth's shadow. See counter-glow.

Wiktionary

  1. n. astronomy A faint brightening of the night sky in the region of the ecliptic directly opposite the Sun.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A faint patch of light in the night sky that appears opposite the sun; a reflection of sunlight by micrometeoric material in space.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a faint spot of light in the night sky that appears directly opposite the position of the sun; a reflection of sunlight by micrometeoric material in space

Etymologies

  1. German Gegenschein ("counter-shine"). (Wiktionary)
  2. German : gegen, against (from Middle High German, from Old High German gegin) + Schein, light (from Middle High German schīn, from Old High German scīn, from scīnan, to shine). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. counterglow

hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. visible radiation
  1. light
  1. visible light

reverse dictionary (2)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. counterglow
  1. antisolar

tags (3)

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  1. weather
  1. German
  1. astronomy

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  • fbharjo a sunbeam's counter-shadow Jun 11, 2012

  • reesetee The glow of the Sun in the opposite direction from the sun's location. At night, the glow is known as the gegenschein (German for "counter glow"), and can be seen as a faint glow in an extremely dark sky. It is actually sunlight backscattered off small dust particles. During daytime, a phenomenon similar to the gegenschien called the glory can be seen from an airplane in clouds opposite the Sun. (From NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, June 25, 1999.) May 8, 2007

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‘gegenschein’ has been looked up 1356 times, loved by 3 people, added to 22 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 18.