Parhelion

ahd-5
  • noun. A bright spot sometimes appearing at either side of the sun, often on a luminous ring or halo, caused by the refraction and reflection of sunlight by ice crystals suspended in the earth's atmosphere.
  • The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
  • noun. An intensification of a circular space in a solar halo, generally in prismatic colors, sometimes dazzlingly bright.
  • the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
  • noun. A mock sun appearing in the form of a bright light, sometimes near the sun, and tinged with colors like the rainbow, and sometimes opposite to the sun. The latter is usually called an anthelion. Often several mock suns appear at the same time. Cf. paraselene.
  • Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
  • noun. A bright spot in the sky due to the refraction of the sun’s image by ice crystals.
  • noun. a reflection or image
  • WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
  • noun. a bright spot on the parhelic circle; caused by diffraction by ice crystals
  • Word Usage
    "Ren Junchuan/Xinhua via Zuma Press SUN'S EDGES: A bright ring or 'halo' around the sun, called parhelion, was seen in Mongolia Tuesday."
    Form
    parhelic  
    Hypernym
    Words that are more generic or abstract
    dapple  fleck  maculation  patch  speckle  
    Same Context
    Words that are found in similar contexts
    104th  15th  43d  January  actinometer  
    Synonym
    Words with the same meaning
    sundog  
    variant