nocturne

[ nok-turn ]

/ ˈnɒk tɜrn /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR nocturne ON THESAURUS.COM

noun Music.

a piece appropriate to the night or evening.

an instrumental composition of a dreamy or pensive character.

RELATED WORDS

song, divertimento

Nearby words

Origin of nocturne

From the French word nocturne, dating back to 1860–65. See nocturn

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for nocturne

Before the end of the nocturne carriage bells are heard outside.
The Light Shines in Darkness|Leo Tolstoy
If any reader has a curiosity to know what my yacht is not like, he should read the striking yacht chapter in Nocturne.
When Winter Comes to Main Street|Grant Martin Overton
The lovely "nocturne" of the evening plain had passed into a Vision or Masque of Force that captured the mind.
Marriage la mode|Mrs. Humphry Ward
The latter piece, Harmonies du soir in the first, as well as in the final version, appears as a kind of Nocturne.
Franz Liszt|James Huneker

That evening she sang and played to him for a long time, exclaiming now and then: "We want a man's voice for this nocturne."
Vendetta|Honore de Balzac

British Dictionary definitions for nocturne

nocturne

/ (ˈnɒktɜːn) /

noun

a short, lyrical piece of music, esp one for the piano

a painting or tone poem of a night scene

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

Word Origin and History for nocturne

nocturne

1862, "composition of a dreamy character," from French nocturne, literally "composition appropriate to the night," noun use of Old French nocturne "nocturnal," from Latin nocturnus (see nocturnal). Said to have been coined c.1814 by John Field, who wrote many of them, in a style that Chopin mastered in his own works, which popularized the term.