Nocturnal

//nɑkˈtɝ.nəl// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person or creature that is active at night.
  2. 2
    A device for telling the time at night, rather like a sundial but read according to the stars. historical

    "A rather different instrument was the nocturnal: it enabled you to tell the time at night, provided you knew the date, from the position of the stars in the constellation of the Great Bear, which rotate around the Pole Star."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Primarily active during the night.

    "nocturnal birds"

  2. 2
    Taking place at night, nightly.

    "a suspicious nocturnal outing"

Adjective
  1. 1
    belonging to or active during the night wordnet
  2. 2
    of or relating to or occurring in the night wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
crepuscularlucifugousmidnightnightnightishnightly

Example

More examples

"These are a kind of nocturnal flower."

Etymology

From Middle French nocturnal, from Latin nocturnus (“nocturnal, nightly”), from Latin nox (“night”), from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts (“night”). Cognates include Ancient Greek νύξ (núx), Sanskrit नक्ति (nákti), Old English niht (English night) and Proto-Slavic *noťь.

Related phrases

nocturnal active photolocationnocturnal arcnocturnal archnocturnal deliriumnocturnal emissionnocturnal penile tumescencenocturnal pollutionsudden unexplained nocturnal death syndrome

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.