- present participle of even.
evening
Americannoun
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the latter part of the day and early part of the night.
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the period from sunset to bedtime.
He spent the evenings reading.
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Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S. the time between noon and sunset, including the afternoon and twilight.
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any concluding or declining period.
the evening of life.
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an evening's reception or entertainment.
Their evenings at home were attended by the socially prominent.
adjective
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of or relating to evening.
The evening sky shone with stars.
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occurring or seen in the evening.
the evening mist.
noun
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the latter part of the day, esp from late afternoon until nightfall
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the latter or concluding period
the evening of one's life
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the early part of the night spent in a specified way
an evening at the theatre
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an entertainment, meeting, or reception held in the early part of the night
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dialect the period between noon and sunset
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(modifier) of, used, or occurring in the evening
the evening papers
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of evening
before 1000; Middle English; Old English ǣfnung, equivalent to ǣfn ( ian ) draw toward evening + -ung noun suffix
Explanation
The evening is the last part of the day before night falls, just when the sun is starting to go down. Most people eat dinner in the evening. The quiet, winding-down, ending part of a day is the evening — you might also call it "dusk" or "twilight." Some people define the evening as the time after dinner and before bedtime, and you can also use the word to talk figuratively about the final part of something else: "It was the evening of his life." The Old English root of evening is ǣfnung, "the time around sunset."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
On a recent evening, from a seat at the restaurant’s fluted blonde-wood bar, I watched as a blaze of honeyed light poured through a wall of windows overlooking sloping vineyards and the Appalachian foothills.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Nancy Guthrie, who needs daily medication, vanished sometime after she was dropped off at her home by relatives on the January evening almost six months ago.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
In the three-page letter published Sunday evening, Arnault responded to a series of points raised in Le Monde’s articles with a mix of sarcasm, self-defense and score-settling.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Spanish authorities ordered the evacuation of eight more municipalities near Toledo on Saturday evening as wildfires threatened areas west of Madrid.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
That evening after supper I bumped over the brick streets to the Koornstra house.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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Surrendering an hour of sunlight in the morning, of course, means getting it back in the evenings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Southern Santa Barbara County is also expected to see dry, gusty sundowner winds in the evenings through Thursday, Lund said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
The older way of consuming media can still be found on the Friday evenings when millions of Orthodox Jews enter a world where printed pages still matter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
Alongside evenings at live music venues, members also meet during the day, giving newcomers the chance to get to know people before attending larger events together.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
So I focused on ATO in the evenings and frenzied work on the Essa project as my deadline approached.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
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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.