night

1 of 2

noun

ˈnīt

: the time from dusk to dawn when no sunlight is visible

The store is open all night.

: an evening or night taken as an occasion or point of time

the opening night

: an evening set aside for a particular purpose

Thursdays is game night in our house.

: the quality or state of being dark

approached the enemy's camp under cover of night

: 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

: the beginning of darkness : nightfall

worked in the fields until night

nightless

ˈnīt-ləs

adjective

night

2 of 2

adjective

: of, relating to, or associated with the night

night air

: intended for use at night

a night lamp

: existing, occurring, or functioning at night

night baseball

a night nurse

: active or functioning best at night

night people

Example Sentences

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. See More

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

The price of such a property rose 31% in Nashville during the same period, and cost an average of $580.64 per night this past summer For bachelorette attendees, the expense—and pressure—can be intensified by social media.

Allison Pohle, WSJ, 26 Nov. 2022 He’s performed well, with eight scoring throws to just three picks, and RB Damien Martinez has also helped the cause, but another big game from Ducks DE Brandon Dorlus could make their night difficult.

Eddie Timanus, USA TODAY, 25 Nov. 2022 Rates at the Shangri-La Paris start at €1,600 ($1,599) for a superior room per night for two people during winter months.

Rachel King, Fortune, 25 Nov. 2022 The price of cruise ship cabins were initially advertised at around $250 per night but were being booked for over $1,000 as the tournament neared.

Time, 23 Nov. 2022 While many Miami hotels can cost hundreds of dollars per night, DJ Khaled's closet is just $11.

Li Cohen, CBS News, 22 Nov. 2022 Though star forward Lauri Markkanen scored Utah’s first nine points of the game, his night was actually a bit subdued — as much as a 23-point, 10-rebound performance can be — relative to his incendiary Friday-night performance anyway.

Eric Walden, The Salt Lake Tribune, 20 Nov. 2022 The metro area could see its coldest night of the season so far overnight Friday.

oregonlive, 17 Nov. 2022 There's bound to be one that'll be the star of your next family game night.

Shanon Maglente, Good Housekeeping, 17 Nov. 2022

Adjective

Including those multi-night runs, the total number of shows scheduled for summer 2023 comes to 27.

Chris Willman, Variety, 6 Oct. 2022 All-inclusive nightly rates begin at about $1,000 per couple, but there are multi-night packages that discount this 20-40%.

Larry Olmsted, Forbes, 4 Oct. 2022 Universal Orlando has started selling tickets, multi-night admission and express passes for the 2022 edition of Halloween Horror Nights, which kicks off at Universal Studios on Sept. 2.

Dewayne Bevil, Orlando Sentinel, 26 July 2022 Murphy and crew made their live comeback last year with a multi-night residency at Brooklyn Steel in New York, and have continued performing this year.

Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 28 June 2022 Those performances will be followed by similar multi-night stops in Austin and Chicago.

Christian Holub, EW.com, 20 June 2022 The trek will feature multi-night stands in major cities like Toronto, New York, Austin, Chicago, and Los Angeles, with Styles receiving support from Madi Diaz, Blood Orange, Gabriels, Jessie Ware, and Ben Harper on select dates.

Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 24 May 2022 Issues with the school district’s new paycheck system, which caused some employees to receive partial paychecks or no pay at all, prompted the multi-night protest in the school district office.

Lauren Hernández, San Francisco Chronicle, 17 Mar. 2022 LCD Soundsystem will return to the stage with a pair of multi-night residencies in Philadelphia and Boston this spring, marking the dance-punk pioneers’ first shows of 2022.

Kat Bouza, Rolling Stone, 22 Feb. 2022 See More

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.

Word History

Etymology

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-)