Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

nightly

American  
[nahyt-lee] / ˈnaɪt li /

adjective

  1. coming or occurring each night.

    his nightly walk to the newsstand.

  2. coming, occurring, appearing, or active at night.

    nightly revels.

  3. of, relating to, or characteristic of night.

    the nightly gloom before a storm.

adverb

  1. on every night.

    performances given nightly.

  2. at or by night.

    an animal that is seen nightly.
nightly British  
/ ˈnaɪtlɪ /

adjective

  1. happening or relating to each night

  2. happening at night

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

adverb

  1. at night or each night

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of nightly

before 900; Middle English; Old English nihtlīc. See night, -ly

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.

A camera trap in Tasmania originally set to photograph quolls captured a possum mother and joey passing nightly to forage.

From BBC • Mar. 25, 2026

At the meditation center, Sarah found people bathing with her hose nightly and leaving the water running, cutting into water lines, and making warming fires close to the building.

From Slate • Mar. 25, 2026

But once the evening news put the Vietnam War’s reality into America’s living room nightly, what was once funny and innocent just wasn’t funny any more.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026

In recent weeks, furious Havana residents have signaled their displeasure with the outages in nightly crescendos of clanging pots and pans.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 16, 2026

“That’s your ghoul, isn’t it?” asked Harry, who had never actually met the creature that sometimes disrupted the nightly silence.

From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

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.