midnight
nounEtymology
From Middle English midnight, from Old English midniht, from Proto-Germanic *midjanahts (“midnight”), equivalent to mid- + night. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Midnoacht (“midnight”), Old High German mittinaht (“midnight”), Danish midnat (“midnight”), Swedish midnatt (“midnight”), Icelandic miðnætti (“midnight”). Compare also Saterland Frisian Middernoacht (“midnight”), Dutch middernacht (“midnight”), German Mitternacht (“midnight”).
Definitions
The middle of the night
The middle of the night: the sixth temporal hour, equidistant between sunset and sunrise.
- Thanks to its sonar, the narwhal can remain active even at midnight, unhindered by the darkness.
- And vpon the first day of the weeke, when the disciples came together to breake bread, Paul preached vnto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speach vntill midnight.
Twelve o'clock at night exactly.
- The police report said that officers, who told CNN they are not currently pursuing criminal charges, arrived to the scene just after midnight and found Gillum and a second person, Aldo Mejias, in the hotel room.
Synonym of boxcars (“a pair of sixes”).
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
Utterly dark or black.
- Free and falling, his midnight hair flowed out all around us like a silk canopy.
The neighborhood
- synonym00:00
- synonym12 o'clock
- synonym12 midnight
- synonym12 a.m.
- synonym24:00
- synonymdead of night
- synonymmidnight
- synonymnoon
- synonymnoon of night
- antonymmidday
- neighborearly morning
- neighbordawn
- neighborfirst light
- neighborpostdawn
- neighbormorning
- neighborafternoon
- neighborevening
- neighbordusk
- neighbornight
- neighbornighttime
Derived
burn the midnight oil, midnight appointment, midnight blue, midnight cactus, midnight chow, midnight feast, midnight horror, midnight in a coal mine, midnightish, midnightly, midnight mass, midnight movie, midnight oil, midnight regulation, midnight run, midnight snack, midnight sun, postmidnight, post-midnight, premidnight
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at midnight. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at midnight. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
5 hops · closes at midnight
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA