NIGHT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Night mean? 

• NIGHT (noun)
  The noun NIGHT has 8 senses:

1. the time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark outside

2. a period of ignorance or backwardness or gloom

3. the period spent sleeping

4. the dark part of the diurnal cycle considered a time unit

5. darkness

6. a shortening of nightfall

7. the time between sunset and midnight

8. Roman goddess of night; daughter of Erebus; counterpart of Greek Nyx

  Familiarity information: NIGHT used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NIGHT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark outside

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

dark; night; nighttime

Hypernyms ("night" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Meronyms (parts of "night"):

evening (the early part of night (from dinner until bedtime) spent in a special way)

late-night hour (the latter part of night)

midnight (12 o'clock at night; the middle of the night)

small hours (the hours just after midnight)

lights-out (a prescribed bedtime)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "night"):

weeknight (any night of the week except Saturday or Sunday)

wedding night (the night after the wedding when bride and groom sleep together)

Holonyms ("night" is a part of...):

24-hour interval; day; mean solar day; solar day; twenty-four hour period; twenty-four hours (time for Earth to make a complete rotation on its axis)

Antonym:

day (the time after sunrise and before sunset while it is light outside)

Derivation:

nightly (happening every night)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A period of ignorance or backwardness or gloom

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Hypernyms ("night" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The period spent sleeping

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

I had a restless night

Hypernyms ("night" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The dark part of the diurnal cycle considered a time unit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

three nights later he collapsed

Hypernyms ("night" is a kind of...):

time unit; unit of time (a unit for measuring time periods)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Darkness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

it vanished into the night

Hypernyms ("night" is a kind of...):

dark; darkness (absence of light or illumination)

Sense 6

Meaning:

A shortening of nightfall

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

they worked from morning to night

Hypernyms ("night" is a kind of...):

crepuscle; crepuscule; dusk; evenfall; fall; gloam; gloaming; nightfall; twilight (the time of day immediately following sunset)

Sense 7

Meaning:

The time between sunset and midnight

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

he watched television every night

Hypernyms ("night" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Sense 8

Meaning:

Roman goddess of night; daughter of Erebus; counterpart of Greek Nyx

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Night; Nox

Instance hypernyms:

Roman deity (a deity worshipped by the ancient Romans)

 Context examples 

Tell them I think of them by day, pray for them by night, and find my best comfort in their affection at all times.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

What could his sling, his throwing-stick, or his arrow avail him against such forces as have been loose to-night?

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The same thing happened the second and third night: so the king ordered his head to be cut off.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Using an improved model of how energy would flow throughout the planet and radiate back into space, researchers find that the night side of the planet is not as cool as previously thought.

(Lava or Not, Exoplanet 55 Cancri e Likely to have Atmosphere, NASA)

Every year during spring and fall migration, tens of millions of birds take flight at sunset and pass over our heads, unseen in the night sky.

(Using artificial intelligence to track birds' dark-of-night migrations, National Science Foundation)

They slept that night on the grass, with nothing but the stars over them; and they rested very well indeed.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

They had lost no dogs during the night, and they swung out upon the trail and into the silence, the darkness, and the cold with spirits that were fairly light.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

A bad night’s sleep can also result in a spike in blood pressure that night and the following day, according to recent research.

(Deep Sleep May Play Role in Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Other symptoms include fever, weight loss, fatigue, or night sweats.

(Hodgkin Disease, NCI Dictionary)

"This accounts for something which Mr Elliot said last night," cried Anne.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)