# night

Pronunciation: say "NYT" /naɪt/

## Noun

1. The time between sunset and sunrise, when the Sun is below the horizon and the sky is dark; the darkness of this time.
   - Simple: The dark part of each day, between the time the sun goes down and the time it comes up.
   - _The night was so clear that we could see thousands of stars._
   - _Owls hunt during the night, while most other animals are asleep._
2. An evening or night given to a particular activity, event or occasion, such as a quiz or a game.
   - Simple: An evening or night when a particular activity or event takes place.
   - _The pub hosts a trivia night every Thursday._
   - _We're planning a night of board games and snacks this weekend._
3. A span of time amounting to a day, or at minimum a single night.
   - Simple: A length of time counted as a day, or at least one night.
   - _They stayed two nights at the inn before moving on._
   - _The booking covered one night, so they left the next morning._
5. The onset of darkness at the end of the day; nightfall.
   - Simple: The time when the Sun goes down and it starts to get dark.
   - _Travelers hurried to find shelter before night came._
   - _Workers headed home as night settled over the city._
7. A period often defined in law as beginning 30 minutes after sunset and ending 30 minutes before sunrise.
   - Simple: In the law, the hours starting soon after sunset and ending soon before sunrise.
   - _Under the statute, a burglary committed at night draws a harsher sentence._
   - _The break-in happened twenty minutes after sunset, so in legal terms it was not yet night._
8. A deep, dark shade of blue, also called midnight blue.
   - Simple: A very dark blue color, like the sky late after sunset.

## Interjection

4. Short for good night: said when parting from someone in the evening or before going to sleep. — Ellipsis of good night.
   - Simple: Short for good night: said to someone when going to bed or leaving in the evening.
   - _"Night, everyone," he said, slipping out of the party early._
   - _We hugged at the door and exchanged a quiet "night" before parting._

## Verb

6. To spend a single night somewhere; to stay overnight. *(rare)*
   - Simple: To stay somewhere for one night.
   - _The travelers chose to night in a roadside lodge rather than press on._
   - _Caravans once nighted at these wells before crossing the desert._

## Origin

This comes from Middle English "night" and Old English "niht," from Proto-Germanic *nahts and ultimately Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts, all meaning "night." It is related to words like German "Nacht," Dutch "nacht," Greek "nýchta," Russian "nočʹ," and Latin "nox."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/night (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).