nightfall
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of nightfall
Explanation
Nightfall is the part of a day when the sun goes down and evening begins. In suburban neighborhoods, parents often call their kids to come home for dinner at nightfall. It gets dark at nightfall, marking the end of the day. You can also all this time dusk or twilight. If your dad warns you to be home from your bike ride by nightfall, he wants you home before sunset. Nightfall has a bit of an old fashioned, poetic sound, and it dates from the early eighteenth century, a combination of night, from the Old English niht, or "darkness," and fall, or "come suddenly."
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.
Aerial support crews, grounded by bad weather earlier in the week, hoped to keep operating until nightfall, when civil protection drones would take over the task of monitoring for "potential flare-ups," the governor's statement said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
These eight steps can help keep bedrooms cooler before nightfall.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
After nightfall, it drops down some 50cm to a leaf, a branch or the forest floor and creates an anchor point using a silk line.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026
Come nightfall, capturing the lightning bugs during the few hours they appear each evening takes stamina and perseverance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
By nightfall he no longer had to tell it.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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.
