equinox

English

Alternative forms

• æquinox (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English equinox, equynox, from Old French equinoce (French équinoxe), from Medieval Latin equinoxium, from Latin aequinoctium, from aequus (“equal”) + nox (“night”). Displaced native Old English efnniht (Modern English evennight).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛk.wɪˌnɒks/, /ˈiː.kwɪˌnɒks/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈiː.kwəˌnɑks/, /ˈɛk.wəˌnɑks/

• 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.

3. An equinoctial gale.
   • 1687, John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther

     No more than usual Equinoxes blew.

   • 1899, Rudyard Kipling, Stalky & Co.

     The Equinox drove the sand into their faces or round their legs, as they dived among the sheep-haunted hollows.

Synonyms

• evennight (rare)

Hyponyms

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

 

Coordinate terms

• solstice

Derived terms

• (adj, archaic) equinoxial
• precession of the equinoxes

Related terms

• (adj) equinoctial, equinoctal
• interequinoctial

Translations

intersection of the ecliptic with the celestial equator

• Arabic: اِعْتِدَال‎ m (iʿtidāl)
• Armenian: գիշերահավասար (hy) (gišerahavasar)
• Asturian: equinocciu m
• Azerbaijani: ekinoks, gecə-gündüzün bərabərliyi
• Basque: ekinokzio
• Bulgarian: равноде́нствие 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) m
• Esperanto: ekvinokso (eo), tagnoktegaleco
• Estonian: pööripäev, võrdpäevsus (et)
• Faroese: javndøgur n
• Finnish: päiväntasaus (fi)
• French: équinoxe (fr) m
• Galician: equinoccio (gl) m
• Georgian: ბუნიობა (bunioba), დღეღამტოლობა (dɣeɣamṭoloba), ბუნიაობა (buniaoba)
• German: Tagundnachtgleiche (de) f, Tagnachtgleiche f, (learned) Äquinoktium (de) n
• Greek: ισημερία (el) f (isimería)

  Ancient Greek: ἰσημερία f (isēmería)

• Hindi: विषुव (hi) m (viṣuv)
• 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(分點) (ko) (bunjeom)
• Latin: aequinoctium n

• Lithuanian: lygiadienis m, ekvinokcija f
• Malagasy: ekinôksa (mg)
• Malayalam: വിഷുവം (viṣuvaṃ)
• Maori: pahore o Rehua, te pahore o Rehua
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: jevndøgn n

  Nynorsk: jamdøgn

• Old English: efnniht 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)
• Sanskrit: विषुव (sa) m (viṣuva)
• Scottish Gaelic: co-fhad-thràth m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: равнодневница f, равнодневица f

  Roman: ravnodnevnica f, ravnodnevica (sh) f

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

Further reading

• equinox on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French équinoxe, from Latin aequinoctium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌeː.k(ʋ)iˈnɔks/
• Hyphenation: equi‧nox
• Rhymes: -ɔks

Noun

equinox m (plural equinoxen)

1. equinox

   Synonyms: dag-en-nachtevening, equinoctium, nachtevening

Derived terms

• equinoxiaal