nocturnal
adjEtymology
From Middle French nocturnal, from Latin nocturnālis (“nocturnal”), from Latin nocturnus (“nocturnal”), 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.
- derived from *nókʷts✻
- derived from nox
- derived from nocturnus
- derived from nocturnālis
- borrowed from nocturnal
Definitions
Primarily active during the night.
- nocturnal birds
Taking place at night, nightly.
- a suspicious nocturnal outing
A person or creature that is active at night.
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
A device for telling the time at night, rather like a sundial but read according to the…
A device for telling the time at night, rather like a sundial but read according to the stars.
- 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.
The neighborhood
- synonymlucifugous
- synonymnightish
- synonymnightly
- synonymnighttime
- synonymnocturnal
- antonymdiurnal
- antonymnonnocturnal
- neighbormatutinal
- neighbormatutine
- neighborvespertinal
- neighborvespertine
Derived
noctophobia, nocturnal active photolocation, nocturnal arc, nocturnal arch, nocturnal delirium, nocturnal emission, nocturnalism, nocturnalist, nocturnality, nocturnally, nocturnal penile tumescence, nocturnal pollution, nonnocturnal, seminocturnal, sudden unexplained nocturnal death syndrome
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for nocturnal. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA