twilight zone
To put or place into an indeterminate position; to be in an ambiguous, undetermined, or improper context.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“My application is in the twilight zone between accepted and rejected.”
“The old law exists in a twilight zone between being active and ignored.”
“You are in a twilight zone when you finish school but have no job.”
“The project is currently in the twilight zone, as we are waiting for the manager to decide if we should continue or cancel it.”
“Our relationship entered a strange twilight zone where we were more than friends but not quite a couple.”
“After the company merger, my job role fell into a twilight zone because nobody knew who I reported to.”
“Caught in the twilight zone of bureaucratic uncertainty, the proposal remained neither officially approved nor formally denied for several months.”
first recorded 20th c.
The term emerged from the 1959 television anthology series The Twilight Zone. The programme's name was itself inspired by the pre-existing astrophysical sense of the term, which describes the region of a planetary body where light gives way to darkness.
- 01
comfort zone
The range of circumstances in which a person feels relaxed or able to cope.
- 02
flood the zone
To fill a relevant region of the field of play.
- 03
twilight industry
An industry that is fading away, perhaps because replaced by newer technology, or facing a lack of critical resources or a lack of consumer interest.
- 04
twilight years
Old age.
Last updated August 10, 2026