moonlight
Syllables: moon·lightUK/ˈmuːnlaɪt//ˈmunˌlaɪt/
moonlight noun: the light reflected from the Moon, which seems to emanate from it.
Noun
moonlight (usually uncountable, plural moonlights)
- The light reflected from the Moon, which seems to emanate from it.
- Meronym: moonbeam
- Than Ripheus him ſelf adioynd, & myghty moſt with launce / Came Iphitus onto my ſide, by monelight met by chaunce.1555 July (date written; Gregorian calendar), Virgil, “The Seconde Booke”, in Thomas Phaer, transl., The Seuen First Bookes of the Eneidos of Virgill, Conuerted in Englishe Meter […], London: […]...
- Synonyms:
- moonshine
- The silvery colour of the light reflected by the Moon.
- Synonym of moonshine (“illegally produced or smuggled spirits”).
- Barter'd for game from chace or warren won, / Yon cask holds moonlight, run when moon was none; / And late-snatch'd spoils lie stow'd in hutch apart, / To wait the associate higgler's evening cart.1809, [Walter Scott], “Fragments, which Originally Appeared in the Edinburgh Annual Register for 1809. The Poacher.”, in The Bridal of Triermain, or The Vale of St John. In Three Cantos, Edinburgh...
- A fast-sailing lugger will soon bring you there though, snug stowed under hatches, like a cask of moonlight.1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Narrative of Darsie Latimer, Continued”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst...
- Synonyms:
- moonshine
- Chiefly in to do a moonlight: short for moonlight flit (“an act of secretly leaving premises without paying the rent, supposedly at night by the light of the Moon; hence, any act of escaping at night”).
- A picture of a scene illuminated by light reflected by the Moon.
- A journey made at night when the Moon is shining.
- An oratorical competition; also, a participant in such a competition.
Verb
moonlight (third-person singular simple present moonlights, present participle moonlighting, simple past and past participle moonlighted)
- To do a moonlight flit: to secretly leave premises without paying the rent, supposedly at night by the light of the Moon.
- To make a night-time attack on a tenant farmer not supporting the policies of the Irish National Land League.
- To do work for pay (sometimes illegally, secretly, or without paying income tax on the earnings) which is in addition to a main job, often in the evening or at night.
- There are three individual rear seats. They all slide, they all fold, or they can all be removed completely, so that you can moonlight as a van.2004 July, Richard Porter, Paul Kerensa, “MPVs as Minicabs” (00:22:29 from the start), in Top Gear, season 4, episode 7, spoken by James May, London, via BBC Two, →OCLC
- Investigators discover that Captain Ospina was forced to take a second job, moonlighting in a bar, in order to make ends meet for his family.2011 August 19, Carl Knutson, “The Plane that Flew too High” (41:00 from the start), in Mayday: Air Disaster, season 11, episode 2, spoken by Jonathan Aris, Montreal, Que.: Cineflix Media, →OCLC
- To engage in an activity other than what one is known for.
- Mr. [Jeffrey] Katzenberg, who moonlights as a top [Joe] Biden official and has worked with Mr. [George] Clooney on philanthropy for decades, reached out to him to see if there was an off-ramp, according to three people familiar with the matter.2024 July 11, Theodore Schleifer, Jacob Bernstein, Reid J. Epstein, “How Biden lost George Clooney and Hollywood”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC...
- Of a thing: to perform a secondary function substantially different from a supposed primary function.
- Some proteins have a primary function of acting as enzymes, but moonlight by carrying out secondary roles such as signal transduction or transcriptional regulation.
- Of a tenant farmer: to be attacked for not supporting the policies of the Irish National Land League.
moonlight meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
moonlight in Hindi
- light reflected from the Moon
- चाँदनी cā̃dnī, चंद्रिका candrikā, चन्द्रिका candrikā, ज्योत्स्ना jyotsnā, कौमुदी kaumudī, चंद्रप्रभा candraprabhā
moonlight in Tamil
- light reflected from the Moon
- நிலவொளி nilavoḷi, வெண்ணிலவு veṇṇilavu
moonlight in Marathi
- moonlight
- चंद्रप्रकाश candraprakāś
moonlight in Urdu
- light reflected from the Moon
- چان٘دْنی cā̃dnī, مَہْتاب mahtāb
More languagesFewer languages
- moonlight in Bengali
- চাঁদের আলো cãder alō, মাহতাব mahotab
- moonlight in Telugu
- చంద్రిక candrika, కౌముది kaumudi, వెన్నెల vennela
- moonlight in Malayalam
- നിലാവ് nilāvŭ
- moonlight in Kannada
- ಬೆಳದಿಂಗಳು beḷadiṅgaḷu, ಚಂದ್ರಿಕೆ candrike, ಜ್ಯೋತ್ಸ್ನಾ jyōtsnā, ಕೌಮುದಿ kaumudi
- moonlight in Gujarati
- ચાંદની cā̃dnī
- moonlight in Odia
- ଜହ୍ନ jahna
- moonlight in Sanskrit
- चन्द्रिका candrikā
- moonlight in Assamese
- জোনাক zünak
- moonlight in Nepali
- जून jūna
- moonlight in Pashto
- سپوږمۍ spoǵməy
- moonlight in Tagalog
- liwanag ng buwan
- moonlight in Arabic
- ضَوْء قَمَر ḍawʔ qamar
- moonlight in Malay
- cahaya bulan
- moonlight in Indonesian
- cahaya bulan
- moonlight in Thai
- แสงจันทร์ sɛ̌ɛng-jan
- moonlight in Vietnamese
- ánh trăng, ăn mảnh
- moonlight in Myanmar
- လသာခြင်း la.sahkrang:
- Kashmiri
- پرٛاگاش prāgāś
- Dzongkha
- ཟླ་འོད zla 'od
Examples of moonlight in a sentence
- 'Tis eight o’clock,—a clear March night, / The moon is up,—the sky is blue, / The owlet, in the moonlight air, / Shouts from nobody knows where; […]1798, [William Wordsworth], “The Idiot Boy”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], →OCLC...
- He found him in a little moonlight room, / Pale, lattic'd, chill, and silent as a tomb.1819, John Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for...
- It was the pensive oysterman that saw a lovely maid, / Upon a moonlight evening, a-sitting in the shade;1830, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ballad of the Oysterman, lines 5–6:
- [S]he passed away noiselessly, and the moonlight kissed the wall which her shadow had dimmed.1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Further Communications on Business”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume II, London: Smith...
Synonyms of moonlight
Forms of moonlight
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | moonlights |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | moonlights |
| present participle | moonlighting |
| past participle | moonlighted |
| past | moonlighted |
Origin of moonlight
The noun is derived from Middle English moonelight, monelight, mone lyght (“light of the moon; (heraldry) pattern of moons on the field of a heraldic banner”), from mon, mone (“moon”) (from Old English mōna (“moon”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mḗh₁n̥s (“moon; month”)) + light (“light”) (from Old English lēoht (“light”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to see; to shine”)). By surface analysis, moon + light. The verb is derived from the noun. Verb sense 1.1 (“to secretly leave premises without paying the rent”) is a back-formation from moonlight flit, while verb sense 1.2 (“to make a night-time attack on a tenant farmer”) is probably a back-formation from moonlighter. cognates * Dutch maanlicht * German Mondlicht * Scots muinlicht, munelicht * West Frisian moanneljocht
Words formed from moonlight
Phrases with moonlight
Questions about moonlight
- What does moonlight mean?
- Moonlight means the light reflected from the Moon, which seems to emanate from it.
- What is moonlight in Hindi?
- Moonlight in Hindi is चाँदनी (cā̃dnī), चंद्रिका (candrikā), चन्द्रिका (candrikā). See Moonlight meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use moonlight in a sentence?
- 'Tis eight o’clock,—a clear March night, / The moon is up,—the sky is blue, / The owlet, in the moonlight air, / Shouts from nobody knows where; […]
- What part of speech is moonlight?
- Moonlight can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce moonlight?
- Moonlight is pronounced /ˈmuːnlaɪt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of moonlight?
- The plural of moonlight is moonlights.
Words near moonlight in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: moonlight (page history and authors); चंद्रप्रकाश (Marathi) (page history and authors); നിലാവ് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ଜହ୍ନ (Odia) (page history and authors); जून (Nepali) (page history and authors); سپوږمۍ (Pashto) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-moonlight.wav.
Cite this entry: “moonlight.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/moonlight. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.