a brownish European songbird, Luscinia megarhynchos, with a broad reddish-brown tail: well known for its musical song, usually heard at night
any of various similar or related birds, such as Luscinia luscinia ( thrush nightingale )
1200–50; Middle English nightyngale, nasalized variant of nightegale, Old English nihtegale, cognate with German Nachtigall, literally, night singer (compare Old English galan sing; akin to yell )
A nightingale is a very small bird with a beautiful, loud song. If you hear the distinctive whistles of the nightingale, it is most likely a male bird seeking a mate. Nightingales got their name because of the unattached male's habit of singing long into the night (although nightingales also sing during the day). Its song is distinctive and powerful, with trills, whistles, and gurgling sounds punctuating it. The nightingale has inspired writers of all sorts throughout history, including ancient Greeks, the poet Chaucer, and T.S. Eliot in "The Waste Land." The name nightingale combines night with the Proto-Germanic galon, "to sing."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Just as the familiar tune “In the Hall of the Mountain King” gradually builds speed “accelerando,” as the compositional notation is known, some birdsong does too, like that of the nightingale.
From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 2023
I wonder if even Janet Malcolm might have given a pass to this devoted biographer and his own bow to a nightingale.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 3, 2023
It was on Hampstead Heath that John Keats pondered the beauty of nature, nightingale song and mortality.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2021
Animals have always come and gone, medieval wolves, later Keats’ nightingale, later still a rare wallaby, spotted bounding through the trees in spring 2019.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 5, 2020
Serafina turned to the nightingale and said, “What is your name?”
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
On Sept. 4, researchers at another not-for-profit group, the Nightingale Collective, found that OpenAI agents undergoing testing had hijacked a German website to communicate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
While the incident caused minor harm overall, it demonstrated the capabilities of these agents, said Sydney Von Arx, the chief executive of Nightingale Collective, a not-for-profit organization that helped uncover the attack.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Nightingale believes ChatGPT's output reflects the data which has been used to develop and train it.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
Despite taking in the pupils of Baden Powell, Nightingale school is still just over 80% full.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
“Little Nightingale, before you go, can I give you some advice?”
From "The Marvels" by Brian Selznick
Yet prior to the new study, only humans and thrush nightingales have been observed singing songs that have a rhythmical structure—that is, containing features such as a “categorical rhythm.”
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 25, 2021
Do nightingales shoot magic out of their cloacas?
From The Guardian ● Nov. 19, 2019
Knepp boasts the largest population in Britain of the Purple Emperor butterfly; nightingales, after years of decline, are nesting there in rising numbers.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 3, 2019
He transformed a hotel ballroom into an enchanted forest, carpeting the floor in sod, hanging fresh grapes from a trellis and borrowing cages of nightingales from the Central Park Zoo for the occasion.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2017
Catelyn recognized Bryce Caron's nightingales, the Penrose quills, and Lord Estermont's sea turtle, green on green.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
