Daylight Meaning
/ˈdeɪlaɪt/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe natural light that is ambient in daytime, being mostly sunlight (both direct and indirect, on either sunny days or cloudy days).
nounA light source that simulates daylight.
Sentence Examples
The burglar broke into the post office in broad daylight.
I had to think about the problem for quite a while before I saw daylight.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The room was filled with ____ coming through the large windows.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The burglar broke into the post office in broad ____.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English daye-lighte, dey liȝht, dailiȝt, day-liht, dai-liht (also as days lyȝt, daies liht), equivalent to day + light. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Deegeslucht, Daisljoacht (“daylight”), West Frisian deiljocht (“daylight”), Dutch daglicht (“daylight”), German Tageslicht (“daylight”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Towards the following morning, the thermometer fell to 5°; and at daylight, there was not an atom of water to be seen in any direction."
— 1835, Sir John Ross, Sir James Clark Ross, Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-west Passage …, Volume 1, pages 284–5:
"Sometimes hosts are a little saltier when the cameras aren’t rolling, but I don’t recall ever hearing any daylight between the views they express on-air and off."
— 2023 February 17, Michelle Goldberg, “What Fox News Says When You’re Not Listening”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
"[…] the Morlocks, subterranean for innumerable generations, had come at last to find the daylit surface intolerable."
— 1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Chapter 7”, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC:
"[…] she was not looking at the daylit, sunny world which she so wanted to see."
— 1953, C. S. Lewis, chapter 15, in The Silver Chair, Collins, published 1998:
"Tunnels were enlarged or daylighted and clearances generally greatly improved."
— 1964 October, “Letters: A US lesson in high-capacity freight stock”, in Modern Railways, page 233:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The room was filled with ____ coming through the large windows.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The burglar broke into the post office in broad ____.