midnight

Syllables: mid·night/ˈmɪd(ˌ)naɪt/UK[ˈmɪd̚naɪt]

midnight noun: the middle of the night: the sixth temporal hour, equidistant between sunset and sunrise.

Noun

midnight (countable and uncountable, plural midnights)

The middle of the night: the sixth temporal hour, equidistant between sunset and sunrise.
- Thanks to its sonar, the narwhal can remain active even at midnight, unhindered by the darkness.
- And he [Jesus] ſayde vnto thẽ [them]: which of you ſhall have a frende and ſhall goo to hym att mydnyght⸝ and ſaye vnto hym: frende lende me foure loves for a frende of myne is come out off the waye to me⸝ and I have nothynge to ſett before hĩ [him]⸝ And he within ſhall andſwer and ſaye: Trouble me...1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Gospell off S. Luke xj:[5–8], folio xciiij, recto
Antonyms:

noon, midday
Twelve o'clock at night exactly.
- She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good! / She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood! / They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years, / Till, now, on the stroke of midnight, / Cold, on the stroke of midnight, / The...1906 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 2, stanza IV, pages 50–51
- The police report said that officers, who told CNN they are not currently pursuing criminal charges, arrived to the scene just after midnight and found Gillum and a second person, Aldo Mejias, in the hotel room.2020 March 13, Oliver Darcy, “Andrew Gillum apologizes after being found ‘inebriated’ in hotel room where police say man was treated for ‘possible drug overdose’”, in CNN Business
Synonym of boxcars (“a pair of sixes”).

Synonyms:

boxcars

Adjective

midnight (not comparable)

(poetic) Utterly dark or black.
- Free and falling, his midnight hair flowed out all around us like a silk canopy.2013, Sharon Ricklin, Ravenswynd Legends, page 143

midnight meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

midnight in Hindi

middle of the night: आधी रात ādhī rāt, आधीरात ādhīrāt, अधरात adhrāt, मध्यरात madhyarāt, मध्यरात्रि madhyarātri
12 o'clock at night exactly — see also twelve o'clock: आधी रात ādhī rāt, आधीरात ādhīrāt, अधरात adhrāt, मध्यरात madhyarāt, मध्यरात्रि madhyarātri

midnight in Tamil

middle of the night: நள்ளிரவு naḷḷiravu, நடுநாள் naṭunāḷ, நடுராத்திரி naṭurāttiri
12 o'clock at night exactly — see also twelve o'clock: நள்ளிரவு naḷḷiravu

midnight in Marathi

middle of the night: मध्यरात्र madhyarātra
12 o'clock at night exactly — see also twelve o'clock: मध्यरात्र madhyarātra

midnight in Urdu

middle of the night: آدھی رات ādhī rāt
12 o'clock at night exactly — see also twelve o'clock: آدھی رات ādhī rāt, نِصْفِ شَب nisf-i śab

More languagesFewer languages

midnight in Bengali: মধ্যরাত moddhorat
midnight in Telugu: నడిరేయి naḍirēyi
midnight in Malayalam: അർദ്ധരാത്രി aṟddharātri
midnight in Kannada: ಮಧ್ಯರಾತ್ರಿ madhyarātri, ನಟ್ಟಿರುಳು naṭṭiruḷu
midnight in Punjabi: ਅੱਧੀ ਰਾਤ
midnight in Gujarati: મધરાત madhrāt, મધ્યરાત્રિ madhyarātri
midnight in Odia: ମଧ୍ଯ଼ରାତ୍ରି, ମଧ୍ଯ଼ରାତ୍ରିର
midnight in Sanskrit: अर्धरात्र ardharātra
midnight in Nepali: अधरात adharāt, मध्यरात madhyarāt
midnight in Pashto: نيمه شپه níma špa
midnight in Tagalog: hatinggabi
midnight in Arabic: مُنْتَصَف لَيْل muntaṣaf layl, مُنْتَصَف اللَّيْل muntaṣaf al-layl, مُنْتَصَف اَللَّيْل muntaṣaf al-layl
midnight in Malay: tengah malam
midnight in Indonesian: tengah malam
midnight in Thai: เที่ยงคืน tîiang-kʉʉn
midnight in Vietnamese: nửa đêm, đêm
midnight in Myanmar: သန်းခေါင် san:hkaung

Examples of midnight in a sentence

The eerie sounds seemed to come from the graveyard after midnight.
We were boogieing from midnight until three o’clock in the morning.
Emily's father lectured her about the importance of being home before midnight.

All 40 example sentences with midnight

Synonyms of midnight

boxcars
00:00
12 o'clock
12 midnight
12 a.m.
24:00
dead of night
noon
noon of night

Antonyms

noon
midday

All synonyms and antonyms of midnight

Forms of midnight

plural	midnights

Plural of midnight: midnights

Origin of midnight

From Middle English midnight, from Old English midniht, from Proto-Germanic *midjanahts (“midnight”), equivalent to mid- + night. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Midnoacht (“midnight”), Old High German mittinaht (“midnight”), Danish midnat (“midnight”), Swedish midnatt (“midnight”), Icelandic miðnætti (“midnight”). Compare also Saterland Frisian Middernoacht (“midnight”), Dutch middernacht (“midnight”), German Mitternacht (“midnight”).

Phrases with midnight

6 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about midnight

What does midnight mean?: Midnight means the middle of the night: the sixth temporal hour, equidistant between sunset and sunrise.
What is midnight in Hindi?: Midnight in Hindi is आधी रात (ādhī rāt), आधीरात (ādhīrāt), अधरात (adhrāt). See Midnight meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is midnight?: Midnight can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce midnight?: Midnight is pronounced /ˈmɪd(ˌ)naɪt/.
What is the plural of midnight?: The plural of midnight is midnights.

Words near midnight in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: midnight (page history and authors); midnight (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); midnight (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-midnight.ogg.

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