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halo

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A circular band of coloured light, visible around the sun or moon etc.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

hayloh

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈheɪləʊ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A circular band of coloured light, visible around the sun or moon etc., caused by reflection and refraction of light by ice crystals in the atmosphere.

  2. religion

    Nimbus, a luminous disc, often of gold, around or over the heads of saints, etc., in religious paintings.

  3. The metaphorical aura of glory, veneration or sentiment which surrounds an idealized entity.

  4. Anything resembling this band, such as an effect caused by imperfect developing of photographs.

verb

  1. To encircle with a halo.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A circular band of coloured light, visible around the sun or moon etc., caused by reflection and refraction of light by ice crystals in the atmosphere.

Used this way, halo is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This sense is used where position and measurement matter — travel, weather and flight — so it reads as factual rather than emotive.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Geography/travel
  • Weather/aviation
  • Technical/specialist writing

Nearby words

  • annulus , a specialist term, precise but narrower

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use halo

  • “The morning sun created a beautiful halo around the distant mountain peaks.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Circular / anything

halo effectdark halo

Other combinations

halo roundred halobright halowhite halohalo vest

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • halo blightnounCompound term

    A blight affecting the leaves of oats and other grasses.

  • halo spotnounCompound term

    A blight of bean plants.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

noun

Sense: circular band of coloured light

annulusTechnicalnimbus

verb

Sense: to encircle with a halo

doughnutinaureole

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.