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
To clarify, “no fun” translates as “bird poo”, while “uguisu” is the species name of the Japanese bush warbler, somewhat different from a nightingale.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 19, 2019
That was mine because I liked that idea that, for once, a nightingale actually did sing in Berkeley Square.
From The Verge ● May 30, 2019
Serafina turned to the nightingale and said, “What is your name?”
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
Jim Nightingale, the firm's AI safety and security researcher who uncovered the issues, said he was left "shaken, and in tears" by the images the chatbot could be made to generate.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
It is very close to other statues including those of Edward VII, Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War Memorial.
From BBC ● May 1, 2026
Rolls-Royce said Project Nightingale will measure 5.76m, which is roughly the same length as its flagship four- or five-seater saloon, Phantom.
From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2026
Previous banknotes have pictured other national figures including novelist Charles Dickens, physicist and chemist Michael Faraday, composer Edward Elgar, nurse Florence Nightingale and architect Christopher Wren.
From Barron's ● Mar. 12, 2026
Ivan stopped in front of the tree, right where the Nightingale had pulled Anya in.
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
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
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
Ornithologists kept finding that birds that rely on insects for food were in trouble: eight in 10 partridges gone from French farmlands; 50 and 80 percent drops, respectively, for nightingales and turtledoves.
From New York Times ● Nov. 27, 2018
As the sun goes down on Białowieża, a night chorus of frogs, nightingales and warblers pipes up under its clear and constellated skies.
From The Guardian ● May 18, 2016
His limbs they gathered and placed in a tomb at the foot of Mount Olympus, and there to this day the nightingales sing more sweetly than anywhere else.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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.
