# twilight zone

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/twilight-zone
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

To put or place into an indeterminate position; to be in an ambiguous, undetermined, or improper context.

## Examples

- 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.

## Origin

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.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.