midnight
Americannoun
adjective
-
of or relating to midnight.
-
resembling midnight, as in darkness.
idioms
noun
-
-
the middle of the night; 12 o'clock at night
-
( as modifier )
the midnight hour
-
-
to work or study late into the night
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of midnight
before 900; Middle English; Old English midniht. See mid-, night
Explanation
Midnight is the moment at which one day ends and the next begins — it's twelve o' clock at night. Follow the Fairy Godmother's advice to Cinderella, and always get home before midnight. At midnight, the date changes, and the time changes from PM to AM. It's no surprise that midnight is the very middle of the night, the word itself stemming from the Old English mid-niht, from mid, "among" or "in the middle of," and night, from niht, which appropriately means both "night" and "darkness."
Vocabulary lists containing midnight
Blue
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: mid-
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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.
Watering holes are programming their calendars accordingly, with nostalgia theme nights and parties that end way before midnight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Unpopulated nightclubs as empty as a cemetery at midnight.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
The celebrations turned deadly around midnight in the town of Ciudad Rodrigo in the west, after a fountain crumbled under the weight of supporters who had climbed onto it.
From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026
It is easiest to spot meteors in the northern hemisphere between midnight and an hour before sunrise, but of course it is dependent on cloud cover.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
It was two hours after midnight when we got there.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
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.
