Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A faint glowing spot in the sky, exactly opposite the position of the sun. Also called counterglow.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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
GNU Webster's 1913
- 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
- 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
- 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).
Examples
“When Sam turned away from the floor a gegenschein floated in her exhausted eyes.”
“This is the gegenschein, German for "counter-shine.”
The Washington Post: Want to see better? We'd have to turn out the lights.
“Two to look for: the gegenschein and zodiacal light.”
The Washington Post: Want to see better? We'd have to turn out the lights.
“Make 36 photographs of gegenschein, the faint nebulosity which appears opposite the Sun in certain conditions.”
Space
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gegenschein’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Cloudy
with a chance of mizzle
puff, nebulous, fog, overcast, becloud, bedim, taint, befog, dapple, mottle, sully, pother and 83 more...
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