night owl

American  

[nahyt oul] / ˈnaɪt ˌaʊl /

noun

Informal.

night owls plural

1. a person who often stays up late at night; nighthawk.

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night owl British  

noun

1. informal a person who is or prefers to be up and about late at night

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night owl Idioms  

1. A person who habitually stays up late and is active at night, as in You can call her after midnight, for she's a night owl. This colloquial term, originally used in the late 1500s for an owl that is active at night, was transferred to nocturnal human beings in the mid-1800s.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• night owls
  plural

Etymology

Origin of night owl

First recorded in 1585–95

Example Sentences

Whether you're an early riser or a night owl will dictate what appeals more to you.

From BBC • Jun. 13, 2026

When I was a night owl with young children, I couldn’t get any downtime until after the children went to bed.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 25, 2026

"Instead of being a morning lark you're going to become more of a night owl," Casement explained.

From Science Daily • Jan. 7, 2026

He'd become such an early bird that he morphed into a night owl, a man resigned to a post-retirement inability to clock in more than four or five hours of rest.

From Salon • Dec. 2, 2023

He’d always been a night owl, and they were both happier when Adina got something almost like a full night of sleep.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny