night

noun

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\ ˈnīt

Definition of night

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : the time from dusk to dawn when no sunlight is visible The store is open all night.

2a : an evening or night taken as an occasion or point of time the opening night

b : an evening set aside for a particular purpose Thursdays is game night in our house.

3a : the quality or state of being dark approached the enemy's camp under cover of night

b : a condition or period felt to resemble the darkness of night: such as

(1) : a period of dreary inactivity or affliction the glories of Roman civilization were lost in a gloomy night of ignorance, superstition, and barbarism— R. A. Hall

(2) : absence of moral values … that night which has for many centuries obscured our holy religion …— Joseph Priestley

c : the beginning of darkness : nightfall worked in the fields until night

night

adjective

Definition of night (Entry 2 of 2)

1 : of, relating to, or associated with the night night air

2 : intended for use at night a night lamp

3a : existing, occurring, or functioning at night night baseball a night nurse

b : active or functioning best at night night people

Other Words from night Synonyms & Antonyms More Example Sentences Learn More About night

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Synonyms & Antonyms for night

Synonyms: Noun

Synonyms: Adjective

Antonyms: Noun

day,
daytime

Antonyms: Adjective

daily,
diurnal

Examples of night in a Sentence

Noun Who are you calling at this time of night? It's eleven o'clock at night. She and her husband both work at night and sleep during the day. The store's open all night. They were up all night long playing video games. Let's stop for the night and get a hotel. a cold, rainy night in the city I stayed up late five nights in a row. Last night, I had the strangest dream. Spend six nights and seven days on a tropical island in the Caribbean! Adjective He is taking a night flight. a night manager at the supermarket This is the last night bus.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun Nichole Casper was one of the nurses who took care of Webb after the bombing and happened to be on duty that night. — David Williams, CNN, 15 Sep. 2021 Kirby was accused of driving as fast as 167 mph at night on a highway near Denver in October 2018 while making comments to viewers about his speed. — From Usa Today Network And Wire Reports, USA TODAY, 14 Sep. 2021 Kate Hudson Getting her skin prepped was one of Hudson's main priorities the night before the Met Ball. — Kaitlyn Frey, PEOPLE.com, 13 Sep. 2021 What became very clear, very quickly was that there would be no baseball that night. — Evan Grant, Dallas News, 10 Sep. 2021 Rojek and her husband were also in the car the night Huguelet was killed. — Katherine Rosenberg-douglas, chicagotribune.com, 30 Aug. 2021 Garnett and Allen are likely to never be close friends, but the Big Three will all be Hall of Famers that night, immortal figures in basketball history. — BostonGlobe.com, 28 Aug. 2021 In metro Phoenix, every shelter bed is full almost every night, and there is a severe lack of affordable housing options. — Jessica Boehm, The Arizona Republic, 26 Aug. 2021 Bad night all around: Opening week could have been better for Class 5A, Region 1 teams. — Ben Thomas | Bthomas@al.com, al, 25 Aug. 2021 Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective These are the places largely given over to nature, where people go to separate from the pull of modern life, often on multi-night trips. — Gregory Thomas, San Francisco Chronicle, 24 Aug. 2021 In previous HHNs, Universal has offered multi-night tickets, but those combos — typically called Frequent Fear Passes — were not included in Thursday’s announcement. — Dewayne Bevil, orlandosentinel.com, 17 June 2021 Since 2006, Widespread Panic fans could expect an annual appearance at Milwaukee's Riverside Theater, with people traveling from around the country in recent years for multi-night residencies. — Piet Levy, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7 Apr. 2021 Ben Folsom, who lives in Alexandria, Va., and takes a multi-night bike trip every year, compared bike touring to jazz. — Washington Post, 26 Mar. 2021 The bulk of the 2020 accolades were distributed earlier this week during the multi-night Creative Arts Emmy Awards. — Nardine Saad, chicagotribune.com, 20 Sep. 2020 Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica and the Farmhouse Inn in Sonoma, for example, have partnered on multi-night packages targeted at inter-California travel. — Cnt Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, 29 May 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'night.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for night

Noun

Middle English night, niht, going back to Old English nieht, niht, umlauted form of neaht, næht, going back to Germanic *naht- (whence Old Saxon & Old High German naht "night," Old Norse nótt, nátt, Gothic nahts), going back to Indo-European *nok^w-t-, whence Old Irish innocht "tonight," Welsh peunoeth "every night" (Welsh nos "night" perhaps going back to *nok^wt-stu-), Latin noct-, nox "night," Old Church Slavic noštĭ, Lithuanian naktìs, Greek nykt-, nýx, Sanskrit nakt-, nak, Hittite nekuz "in the evening" (from an oblique case stem *nek^wt-)