Equinox

Quick meaning: Equinox is a noun meaning (also figuratively) The circumstance of a twenty-four hour time period having the day and night of equal length.

Meaning

(also figuratively) The circumstance of a twenty-four hour time period having the day and night of equal length.

More Meanings

1. (astronomy) One of the two points in space where the apparent path of the Sun intersects with the equatorial plane of the Earth.
2. A gale (“very strong wind”) once thought to occur more frequently around the time of an equinox (sense 1), now known to be a misconception; an equinoctial gale.
3. A celestial equator (“great circle on the celestial sphere, coincident with the plane of the Earth's equator (the equatorial plane)”); also, the Earth's equator.
4. One of two times in the year (one in March and the other in September) when the length of the day and the night are equal, which occurs when the sun is directly overhead at the equator; this marks the beginning of spring in one hemisphere and autumn in the other.

Example Sentences

Live long, nor feel in head or chest / Our changeful equinoxes, / Till mellow Death, like some late guest, / Shall call thee from the boxes.

The four grand and ſolemn Bardic days are, of ancient uſage, the tvvo equinoxes, and the tvvo ſolſtices; the nevv and full moons are alſo, ſubordinately, ſolemn Bardic days: […]

[T]he Months of March and September, the tvvo Æquinoxes of Our year, are the moſt vvindy and tempeſtuous, the moſt unſettled and unequable of Seaſons in moſt Countries of the VVorld.

21. Report the experiments, if conveniently they may, at both the solstices and equinoctes. / 22. Observe accurately the time of the sun’s rising on the top of the hill and below, and note the difference.

Word Forms

• equinoxes
• equinoctes

Synonyms for equinox

Depending on context, synonyms include evennight.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include autumnal, vernal, equinoxe, equinoxial, solstice, equinoctinal.

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