equinox

English

Alternative forms

• æquinox (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French equinoce (French équinoxe), from Medieval Latin equinoxium, from Latin aequinoctium, from aequus (“equal”) + nox (“night”). Replaced Old English efenniht (Modern English evennight).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛkwɪˌnoks/, /ˈiːkwɪˌnɒks/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈiːkwəˌnɑːks/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

equinox (plural equinoxes or equinoctes)

1. (astronomy) The intersection of the apparent path of the sun in the sky (the ecliptic) with the celestial equator.
2. One of the two days on which this intersection occurs each year: (for the Northern hemisphere) March 20 or 21 in the spring and September 22 or 23 in the autumn.
   • 2005, Clive L. N. Ruggles, Ancient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth

     Since it gets light before the sun rises and remains light after the sun sets, the actual period of darkness at the equinox will be substantially less than twelve hours, the exact amount depending on latitude and how one defines the boundary between twilight and night.

Hyponyms

• autumn equinox
• autumnal equinox
• March equinox
• September equinox
• spring equinox
• vernal equinox

Coordinate terms

• solstice

Derived terms

• (adj, archaic) equinoxial
• northward equinox
• precession of the equinoxes
• southward equinox

Related terms

• (adj) equinoctial, equinoctal
• interequinoctial

Translations

intersection of the ecliptic with the celestial equator

• Armenian: գիշերահավասար (hy) (gišerahavasar)
• Asturian: equinocciu m
• Bulgarian: равноденствие n (ravnodénstvie)
• Catalan: equinocci (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 晝夜平分點 (zh), 昼夜平分点 (zh) (zhòuyè píngfēndiǎn), 二分點 (zh), 二分点 (zh) (èrfēndiǎn)

• Czech: rovnodennost (cs) f
• Danish: jævndøgn (da)
• Dutch: nachtevening (nl), dag-en-nachtevening (nl), equinox (nl)
• Esperanto: ekvinokso
• Estonian: pööripäev, võrdpäevsus
• Faroese: javndøgur n
• Finnish: päiväntasaus (fi)
• French: équinoxe (fr) m
• Galician: equinoccio (gl) m
• Georgian: ბუნიობა (bunioba), დღეღამტოლობა (dɣeɣamṭoloba), ბუნიაობა (buniaoba)
• German: Äquinoktium (de) n, Tagundnachtgleiche (de) f
• Greek: ισημερία (el) f (isimería)

  Ancient Greek: ἰσημερία f (isēmería)

• Hungarian: nap-éj egyenlőség
• Icelandic: jafndægur n
• Ido: equinoxo (io)
• Interlingua: equinoctio
• Irish: cónocht f
• Italian: equinozio (it) m
• Japanese: 分点 (ぶんてん, bunten)
• Korean: 분점 (ko) (bunjeom) (分點 (ko))

• Latin: aequinoctium n
• Malagasy: ekinôksa (mg)
• Maori: pahore o Rehua, te pahore o Rehua
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: jevndøgn n

• Old English: efenniht f
• Old Frisian: evennacht f
• Persian: اعتدال‎ (fa) (e'tedâl), برابران‎ (barābarān)
• Polish: równonoc (pl) f, ekwinokcjum (pl) n
• Portuguese: equinócio (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਸਮਰਾਤ f (samrāt)
• Romanian: echinox (ro) n, echinocțiu (ro) n
• Russian: равноде́нствие (ru) n (ravnodénstvije)
• Scottish Gaelic: co-fhad-thràth m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: равнодневница f, равнодневица f

  Roman: ravnodnevnica f, ravnodnevica (sh) f

• Slovene: enakonočje (sl) n, ekvinokcij m
• Spanish: equinoccio (es) m
• Swedish: dagjämning (sv)
• Tagalog: ekinoksyo
• Thai: วิษุวัต (wisuwat)
• Turkish: ekinoks (tr)
• Vietnamese: điểm phân
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: cyhydnos f