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antelucan

adjective/ˌantɪˈljuːkən/

C2CEFR level
97/100Rarity: very rare
LiteraryRegister

Belonging to the hours just before dawn.

In the antelucan stillness even the river seemed to hold its breath.

Similar: pre-dawn, predawn, before daybreak

Origin: From Latin ante 'before' and lux 'light'.

Topic: time of day in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More general words: time of day