Word.ws English Dictionary

good-night

good-night is the archaic form of good night.

Meaning of good night

Phrase

good night

  1. A farewell said in the evening or before going to sleep.
    Synonyms:
    night, night night
  2. (colloquial) Expressing incredulity.
    • […] peculiarities of your law always interest me. What is 'legitim'?"
      "Oh! Good-night!" I said derisively.
      "But I am in dead earnest, and really want to know," he added with a perfectly serious face; "I have a small bet on."1920, William Darling Lyell, The House in Queen Anne Square: A Tale, page 34

Verb

good-night (third-person singular simple present good-nights, present participle good-nighting, simple past and past participle good-nighted)

  1. (ambitransitive) To utter the farewell “good night” to (somebody).
    • And he didn’t say another word until he good-nighted at the gate.1920, Interlude, page 40
    • […]the “Lothario” of the young lady’s temporary choice was good-nighted in her sweetest voice.1927, Journal of the Outdoor Life, page 272

Forms of good-night

third-person singular presentgood-nights
present participlegood-nighting
past participlegood-nighted
pastgood-nighted
alternative formgoodnight

Questions about good-night

What does good-night mean?
Good-night means to utter the farewell “good night” to (somebody).
What is good-night the archaic form of?
Good-night is the archaic form of good night.
What part of speech is good-night?
Good-night is a verb.
What is the past tense of good-night?
The past tense of good-night is good-nighted.

Words near good-night in the dictionary

  1. good-naturedly
  2. good-naturedness
  3. good-neighborliness
  4. good-neighbourliness
  5. good-neighbourly
  6. good-night
  7. good-nighted
  8. good-nighting
  9. good-nights
  10. good-o
  11. good-size

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: good-night (page history and authors); good night (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “good-night.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/good-night. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.