nocturnal
UK/nɒkˈtɜː.nəl//nɑkˈtɝ.nəl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
nocturnal adjective: of a person, creature, group, or species, primarily active during the night.
Adjective
nocturnal (comparative more nocturnal, superlative most nocturnal)
- Of a person, creature, group, or species, primarily active during the night.
- nocturnal birds
- Antonyms:
- diurnal
- Of an occurrence, taking place at night, nightly.
- a suspicious nocturnal outing
- Many of these classic methods are still used, with some modern improvements. For example, with the aid of special microphones and automated sound detection software, ornithologists recently reported […] that pine siskins (Spinus pinus) undergo an irregular, nomadic type of nocturnal migration.2013 January 1, Paul Bartel, Ashli Moore, “Avian Migration: The Ultimate Red-Eye Flight”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 05 Mar 2016, pages 47–48
Noun
nocturnal (plural nocturnals)
- A person or creature that is active at night.
- A device for telling the time at night, rather like a sundial but read according to the stars.
- A rather different instrument was the nocturnal: it enabled you to tell the time at night, provided you knew the date, from the position of the stars in the constellation of the Great Bear, which rotate around the Pole Star.2015, David Wootton, The Invention of Science, Penguin, published 2016, page 188
- Synonyms:
- star clock
nocturnal meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
nocturnal in Hindi
- primarily active during the night
- निशाचर niśācar, रजनीचर rajnīcar
- taking place at night
- रात्रिक rātrik
nocturnal in Urdu
- nocturnal, nightly
- شبانہ śabāna
nocturnal in Bengali
- নৈশ, নিশাচর
nocturnal in Malayalam
- നിശാചരം, രാത്രിയെ സംബന്ധിച്ച, രാത്രിയിൽ
More languagesFewer languages
- nocturnal in Kannada
- ರಾತ್ರಿಯ, ರಾತ್ರಿ ಸಂಬಂಧಿ, ರಾತ್ರಿ ಸಂಭವಿಸುವ, ರಾತ್ರಿ ಚಟುವಟಿಕೆಯ
- nocturnal in Gujarati
- રાત્રિચર rātricar, નિશાચર niśācar
- nocturnal in Sanskrit
- दोषातन doṣātana
- nocturnal in Nepali
- निशाचर
- nocturnal in Arabic
- لَيْلِيّ layliyy
- nocturnal in Persian
- شبانه šabâne
Examples of nocturnal in a sentence
- It was once assumed that dasyurids made little use of visual communications because they are nocturnal.
- Folklore, nocturnal action and assignation, marine and maritime life: all would be otherwise.
- The most abundant were fifteen-centimetre-long nocturnal eaters of insects and fruit known as adapisoriculids.
Synonyms of nocturnal
Antonyms
Forms of nocturnal
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more nocturnal |
| superlative | most nocturnal |
| alternative form (obsolete) | nocturnall |
| Noun | |
| plural | nocturnals |
Origin of nocturnal
From Middle French nocturnal, from Latin nocturnālis (“nocturnal”), from Latin nocturnus (“nocturnal”), from Latin nox (“night”), from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts (“night”). Cognates include Ancient Greek νύξ (núx), Sanskrit नक्ति (nákti), Old English niht (English night) and Proto-Slavic *noťь.
Words formed from nocturnal
- noctophobia
- nocturnal active photolocation
- nocturnal arc
- nocturnal arch
- nocturnal delirium
- nocturnal emission
- nocturnalism
- nocturnalist
- nocturnality
- nocturnally
- nocturnalness
- nocturnal penile tumescence
- nocturnal pollution
- nonnocturnal
- paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria
- seminocturnal
- sudden unexplained nocturnal death syndrome
Phrases with nocturnal
Words that rhyme with nocturnal
- kernel
- external
- internal
- colonel
- diurnal
- infernal
- journal
- eternal
- fraternal
- paternal
- maternal
- hyosternal
40 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- sempiternal
- supernal
- vernal
- anteroexternal
- anterointernal
- antesternal
- asternal
- chondrosternal
- coeternal
- coracosternal
- costosternal
- coxosternal
- dorsoexternal
- dorsointernal
- episternal
- hesternal
- hodiernal
- infrasternal
- intersternal
- latisternal
- mesosternal
- metasternal
- midsternal
- nonexternal
- noninternal
- parasternal
- peristernal
- posteroexternal
- posterointernal
- poststernal
- presternal
- retrosternal
- sternal
- substernal
- supersternal
- suprasternal
- ternal
- tracheosternal
- transsternal
- vertebrosternal
Questions about nocturnal
- What does nocturnal mean?
- Nocturnal means of a person, creature, group, or species, primarily active during the night.
- What is nocturnal in Hindi?
- Nocturnal in Hindi is निशाचर (niśācar), रजनीचर (rajnīcar), रात्रिक (rātrik). See Nocturnal meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is nocturnal?
- Nocturnal can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce nocturnal?
- Nocturnal is pronounced /nɒkˈtɜː.nəl/ (UK).
Words near nocturnal in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nocturnal (page history and authors); شبانہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); nocturnal (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nocturnal (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nocturnal (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); નિશાચર (Gujarati) (page history and authors); दोषातन (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); nocturnal (Nepali, 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-nocturnal.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Simplificationalizer-nocturnal.wav.
Cite this entry: “nocturnal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nocturnal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.