gloaming
/ˈɡloʊ.mɪŋ/noun, verb
gloaming is spelled G-L-O-A-M-I-N-G: 8 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 11 million words in written English, the 98,107th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, gloaming means “Twilight, as at early morning (dawn) or (especially) early evening; dusk” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of gloaming is gloamings.
How many letters and syllables are in gloaming?
| Letters | 8: G-L-O-A-M-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 11 million words; the 98,107th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is gloaming?
Gloaming appears about once in every 11 million words in written English, the 98,107th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce gloaming?
- UK /ˈɡləʊ.mɪŋ/
- US /ˈɡloʊ.mɪŋ/
Gloaming has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-gloaming.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with gloaming?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as gloaming from its last stressed vowel (/oʊmɪŋ/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of gloaming
- gloamings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does gloaming mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Twilight, as at early morning (dawn) or (especially) early evening; dusk.
- 2
obsoleteSullenness; melancholy.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of gloam
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate gloaming?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of gloaming: gloam.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Gloaming in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense twilight:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | crépuscule, heure bleue |
| Spanish | crepúsculo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does gloaming come from?
From Middle English gloming, from Old English glōmung, from Old English glōm (“twilight”). Related to glow. The OED notes: "The vowel of the modern gloaming is anomalous, as Old English glōmung should normally become glooming. The explanation is probably that the ō was shortened in the compound ǣfen-glommung (as the spelling seems to show was actually the case), and that from this compound there was evolved a new subject glŏmung, which by normal phonetic development became Middle English glǭming, modern English gloaming."
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).