Meaning & use
half rainbow
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Meanings
nouncountable
A rainbow that is only partly visible, so that just one side or a short arc of it can be seen in the sky.
Grammar: Countable: say a half rainbow or two half rainbows; the plural is half rainbows.
Patterns
- a half rainbow appears
- see a half rainbow
- a half rainbow in the sky
We drove toward the storm and a half rainbow hung over the hills to our left.
From the kitchen window there was only a half rainbow, the rest hidden by the roof.
She pointed out a half rainbow fading above the sea just before sunset.
nouncountable
A rainbow that is cut off by cloud, buildings, or the horizon, so only part of its arch shows.
Grammar: Countable and often used after there was or there is: there was a half rainbow over the field.
Patterns
- a half rainbow over something
- a half rainbow behind something
- be cut off as a half rainbow
The photograph shows a half rainbow disappearing into low cloud.
Trees along the road turned the rainbow into a half rainbow in every picture we took.
A half rainbow arched out of the mist and stopped halfway across the valley.
nouncountableinformal
Used loosely for any faint or incomplete arc of color in the sky that does not form a full bow.
Grammar: Countable; the plural is half rainbows, as in two half rainbows in one afternoon.
Patterns
- look like a half rainbow
- call something a half rainbow
It was so faint that my brother called it a half rainbow rather than a real one.
After the shower we saw two half rainbows, one on each side of the valley.
Word forms
| plural | half rainbows |
|---|
Common combinations
- a faint half rainbow
- A faint half rainbow appeared above the rooftops after the rain.
- a half rainbow in the sky
- There was a half rainbow in the sky when we left the house.
- spot a half rainbow
- The children were the first to spot a half rainbow over the playground.
- a half rainbow over the hills
- We watched a half rainbow over the hills until the sun came out fully.
- a half rainbow fading
- The half rainbow fading behind the church lasted less than a minute.
- photograph a half rainbow
- He managed to photograph a half rainbow from the car window.
Synonyms and how they differ
- partial rainbow
- This is the more standard way to describe the same sight and sounds slightly more formal than half rainbow.
- rainbow fragment
- Used mostly in writing about weather or photography, and it stresses that only a piece of the bow is visible.
- arc
- A general word for any curved band of light or color; it does not by itself say that the band is a rainbow.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: half rainbow or double rainbow? half rainbow or sun dog?
half rainbow vs double rainbow
A double rainbow has two arches at once, while a half rainbow is a single arch that is only partly visible.
half rainbow vs sun dog
A sun dog is a bright patch beside the sun, not a piece of a rainbow arch.
Practice
Which sentence uses "half rainbow" most naturally?
Choose one answer.
"A half rainbow" is a countable compound, so it needs the article "a" and the singular form after "a". Option 3 drops the article, and option 4 wrongly uses a plural after "a".
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “half rainbow”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.