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.
Through the years, she was often compared to her elder sister - who was revered as the "nightingale" of Bollywood and died in 2022 - but Bhosle built a distinct identity.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2026
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
The nightingale gives its lifeblood to create a perfect red rose.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 22, 2020
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 watched from close by, and felt nothing but compassion until she looked at Will’s dæmon, Kirjava the nightingale.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
The Nightingale data points to another type of phenomenon: agents trying to cheat during training runs, in which OpenAI tries to shape the bots’ behavior.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Sydney Von Arx is chief executive of Nightingale Collective, the not-for-profit organization whose data inspired the September swarm-chasing spree.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
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
OpenAI said it could not "meaningfully respond" to Nightingale Collective's findings because it hadn't been allowed to review the report, which was first shared with news agency Reuters.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
If you were clean shaven and fit the dress, you played Lady Reythiel in The Swineherd and the Nightingale.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Grasshoppers, sand lizards, nightingales, and skylarks that are declining or threatened elsewhere have been found thriving in the city’s green spaces.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 2, 2022
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
Muntjac deer have eaten the undergrowth where nightingales once nested in the forests near my home, and now those birds have gone.
From New York Times ● May 16, 2017
As the nightingales fell silent, the river larks took up their song.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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