difference between sunset and sundown?

[Torsten]

Is there any difference between sunset and sundown?
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Pamela]

In my humble opinion, no, Torsten.

P.S. Night, all.

[Molly]

In meaning, no, but it seems "sunset" has an extra use, collocationally:

sunset industries
sunset provision
sunset sectors

And here are the first, most common, sunset noun collocations form the BNC:

1. SUNSET STRIP
2. SUNSET COTTAGE
3. SUNSET INDUSTRIES
4. SUNSET SONG
5. SUNSET SKY
6. SUNSET INDUSTRY
7. SUNSET HOLE
8. SUNSET BOULEVARD
9. SUNSET BEACH
10. SUNSET RIDGE
11. SUNSET COURT
12. SUNSET SLAB
13. SUNSET VIEWS
14. SUNSET YELLOW
15. SUNSET YEARS

Here, the most common with sundown:

‘SUNDOWN SET’
SUNDOWN BEGINNINGS

http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/

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Here, a similar search using the BYU CORPUS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH:

1. SUNSET STRIP
2. SUNSET BOULEVARD
3. SUNSET PARK
4. SUNSET DISTRICT
5. SUNSET MAGAZINE
6. SUNSET HALL
7. SUNSET BEACH
8. SUNSET LIGHT
9. SUNSET CRUISE
10. SUNSET CLIMATE
11. SUNSET DRIVE
12. SUNSET VIEW
13. SUNSET GLOW
14. SUNSET CRUISES
15. SUNSET PREDICTION


1. SUNDOWN CAFE
2. SUNDOWN DAYS
3. SUNDOWN LOUNGE
4. SUNDOWN RAMBLERS
5. SUNDOWN BRAND
6. SUNDOWN INN
7. SUNDOWN TREE
8. SUNDOWN TIMES
9. SUNDOWN TAVERN
10. SUNDOWN VITAMINS
11. SUNDOWN LIFT
12. SUNDOWN STORM
13. SUNDOWN SKI
14. SUNDOWN SERENADE

http://www.americancorpus.org/

[Alan]

Hi Torsten,

If you turn these into verbs or back into verbs as in: The sun sets and The sun goes down, to me there is an emotional echo in the latter. You find this in expressions like: Don't let the sun go down on your anger and that very evocative line from the poem to remember the dead from World War 1 by Laurence Binyon:

[Molly]