midnight
Americannoun
adjective
-
of or relating to midnight.
-
resembling midnight, as in darkness.
idioms
noun
-
-
the middle of the night; 12 o'clock at night
-
( as modifier )
the midnight hour
-
-
to work or study late into the night
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of midnight
before 900; Middle English; Old English midniht. See mid-, night
Explanation
Midnight is the moment at which one day ends and the next begins — it's twelve o' clock at night. Follow the Fairy Godmother's advice to Cinderella, and always get home before midnight. At midnight, the date changes, and the time changes from PM to AM. It's no surprise that midnight is the very middle of the night, the word itself stemming from the Old English mid-niht, from mid, "among" or "in the middle of," and night, from niht, which appropriately means both "night" and "darkness."
Vocabulary lists containing midnight
Blue
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: mid-
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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.
When Jill Parrett showed up around midnight on a recent Wednesday, she was visitor number 3,744 of the day.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 10, 2026
Between midnight on Friday through 6 a.m. on Sunday, officers arrested 402 people in Newport Beach, a 570% increase from the same period last year.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 6, 2026
The fireworks display on the National Mall was itself delayed until nearly midnight because of thunderstorms.
From Barron's • Jul. 6, 2026
Flights were suspended at nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport from noon on Saturday to make way for military flyovers and the pyrotechnic show which began at midnight local time.
From BBC • Jul. 5, 2026
It was nearly midnight when the trio returned to the Three Lions.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
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.
