Dusk Meaning
/dʌsk/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjTending to darkness or blackness; moderately dark or black; dusky.
nounThe time after the sun has set but when the sky is still lit by sunlight; the evening twilight period.
Sentence Examples
I'm beat. I've been working from dawn to dusk.
Dusk fell over the desert.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The distant mountains turned purple at ____ every evening.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I'm beat. I've been working from dawn to ____.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English dosk, dusk(e) (“dusky”, adj.), from Old English dox (“dark, swarthy”), from Proto-Germanic *duskaz (“dark, smoky”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwes-, related to *dʰewh₂- (“smoke, mist, haze”). Cognate to Latin fuscus (“dark, dusky”), Sanskrit धूसर (dhūsara, “dust-colored”), Old Irish donn (“dark”). Related to dye, dust and dun (see these for more).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades."
— 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:
"Whose dusk set off the whiteness of the skin."
— 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
"I see the air benighted
And all the dusking dales,
And lamps in England lighted,"
— 1936, Alfred Edward Housman, More Poems, XXXIII, lines 25-27:
"After the sun is up, that shadow which dusketh the light of the Moone must needs be under the earth."
— 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The distant mountains turned purple at ____ every evening.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I'm beat. I've been working from dawn to ____.