Evening in its primary meaning is the period of the day between afternoon and night. Though the term is subjective, evening is typically understood to begin just before dusk, when temperatures begin to fall, and last until just after nightfall, when complete darkness has been reached.
Companies often use the time of 5:00 pm to mark the beginning of the evening, for example with evening telephone call rates.
Informally, the term "evening" is used in place of "night", especially in the context of an event which takes place over the course of said "evening".
In the vernacular of at least parts of the rural American South (notably Appalachia) and in some British dialects, "evening" ( /ˈiːvnɪn/) is used to mean "afternoon", as the main meal of the day, dinner, traditionally has occurred at midday. While the exact meaning of the word in this sense is subject to interpretation, "evening" in the rural American South usually has been thought of as beginning at about noon and extending roughly until sunset or suppertime.
Famous quotes containing the word evening:
“In the morning you shall say, “If only it were evening!” and at evening you shall say, “If only it were morning!””
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 28:67.
“Should not every apartment in which man dwells be lofty enough to create some obscurity overhead, where flickering shadows may play at evening about the rafters?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“One evening I sat Beauty on my knees—And I found her bitter—And I reviled her.”
—Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891)