What does "night" mean?

1. (period of darkness) the time between the end of the day and the start of the next morning when it is dark. 2. (an evening event) an evening that you spend doing a specific activity. 3. (to stay overnight) to stay or sleep somewhere for the night.

night — meaning, definition & examples

Q: Is it correct to say "I will see you in the night."?

No — say "I will see you at night.". Use 'at night' for general time, but 'in the night' only when referring to a specific, unusual event during one particular night.

Word

01period of darkness

A1 · Beginner Uncountable noun

n. the time between the end of the day and the start of the next morning when it is dark.

n. the period of darkness between the end of evening and the beginning of morning, typically when the sun is below the horizon.

“The stars are very bright at night when there are no clouds.”

“The temperature drops significantly at night in the desert, often falling from extreme heat to near freezing within a few hours.”

Pitfall

I will see you in the night.

I will see you at night.

Use 'at night' for general time, but 'in the night' only when referring to a specific, unusual event during one particular night.

Synonyms

nighttime darkness

Antonyms

day daytime

02an evening event

A2 · Elementary Countable noun

n. an evening that you spend doing a specific activity.

n. a period of time during the evening or night dedicated to a particular social event or activity.

“We are planning a movie night with pizza and popcorn this Friday.”

“The local community centre hosts a weekly trivia night to encourage social interaction among the residents of the neighbourhood.”

Synonyms

evening event

03to stay overnight

C2 · Proficiency Archaic · Dialect

v. to stay or sleep somewhere for the night.

v. to spend the night at a specific location; often used in travel or outdoor contexts.

“The travellers decided to night in a small wooden hut by the river.”

“The weary hikers were forced to night in an abandoned shepherd's cottage when the sudden blizzard obscured the trail back to the village.”

Synonyms

overnight stay lodge

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, Dutch nacht (“night”), German, 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).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

NOUN

night(A1)