English Explanatory Dictionary

night

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The time when the Sun is below the horizon when the sky is dark.
  2. The period of darkness beginning at the end of evening astronomical twilight when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon, and ending at the beginning of morning astronomical twilight.
  3. A period of time often defined in the legal system as beginning 30 minutes after sunset, and ending 30 minutes before sunrise.
  4. An evening or night spent at a particular activity.
  5. A day, or at least a night.
  6. Nightfall.
  7. Darkness (due to it being nighttime).
  8. A dark blue colour, midnight blue.
  9. A night's worth of competitions, generally one game.
intj
  1. Ellipsis of good night.
verb
  1. To spend a night (in a place), to overnight.
name
  1. The 92nd sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.
  2. The goddess of the night in Heathenry.

Pronunciation

/ˈnaɪ̯t/ [ˈnaɪ̯t] en-us-night.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-night.wav /ˈnɐɪ̯t/ [ˈnɐɪ̯t] /ˈnɜɪ̯t/ [ˈnɜɪ̯t] /ˈnʌɪ̯t/ [ˈnʌɪ̯t] /ˈnəɪ̯t/ [ˈnəɪ̯t] /ˈnɑɪ̯t/ [ˈnɑ̟ɪ̯t] /ˈnɒɪ̯t/ [ˈnɒ̈ɪ̯t] /ˈniːt/ [ˈniːt]

Word forms

night nights nite neet nighting nighted

Etymology

From Middle English nighte, night, nyght, niȝt, naht, from Old English niht, from Proto-West Germanic *naht (“night”), from Proto-Germanic *nahts (“night”), from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts (“night”). Cognates Cognate with Scots nicht (“night”), Yola neeght, nieght, nyeght (“night”), North Frisian naacht, Nacht, noach, nåcht (“night”), Saterland Frisian Noacht (“night”), West Frisian nacht (“night”), Cimbrian and Dutch nacht (“night”), German and Low German Nacht (“night”), Luxembourgish Nuecht (“night”), Mòcheno nòcht (“night”), Vilamovian naocht (“night”), Yiddish נאַכט (nakht, “night”), Danish nat (“night”), Faroese nátt (“night”), Icelandic nátt, nótt (“night”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish natt (“night”), Scanian nøtt (“night”), Gothic 𐌽𐌰𐌷𐍄𐍃 (nahts, “night”); also Breton noz (“night”), Cornish and Welsh nos (“night”), Irish anocht (“tonight”), Manx noght (“tonight”), Scottish Gaelic a-nochd, an nochd (“tonight”), Latin nox (“night”) (whence English nox, a doublet), Greek νύχτα (nýchta, “night”), Albanian natë (“night”), Latgalian and Latvian nakts (“night”), Lithuanian naktis (“night”), Belarusian ноч (noč, “night”), Bulgarian нощ (nošt, “night”), Czech, Polish, and Slovak noc (“night”), Macedonian ноќ (noḱ, “night”), Russian ночь (nočʹ, “night”), Serbo-Croatian ноћ, noć (“night”), Slovene noč (“night”), Ukrainian ніч (nič, “night”), Tocharian A nakcu (“last night; at night”), Tocharian B nekcīye (“last night; at night”), Hittite 𒉈𒆪𒊻 (nekuz, “evening, nightfall; dawn, twilight”), Sanskrit नक्त् (nákt).

Synonyms

evening dusk nightfall sundown sunset sleep dark blackness darkness gloom obscurity shadow

Antonyms

day brightness daylight light

Derived words

admin night all cats are gray at night all cats are grey at night all cats are grey by night all night all-night all-nighter allnighter all-night-man alnight amateur night American night heron anight at night Azara's night monkey back-to-school night bank night barnight because you touch yourself at night benight be on nights bin night birthnight black as night black-crowned night heron born at night but not last night buck's night Burns night by night call it an early night call it a night clubnight club night Cracker Night creature of the night dark night dark night of the soul date night day and night day-and-night day for night day-night day-night cycle day or night day-to-night dead of night deepnight early night election night Eleventh Night evennight everynight field night fireworks night fly-by-night forenight fortnight fortnightly Friday night lights girls' night out
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