thief in the night
/θiːf ɪn ðə naɪt/
thief in the night noun: something stealthy or that occurs without warning.
Noun
thief in the night (plural thieves in the night)
Forms of thief in the night
| plural | thieves in the night |
|---|
Origin of thief in the night
A calque from Ancient Greek κλέπτης ἐν νυκτί (kléptēs en nuktí).
Questions about thief in the night
- What does thief in the night mean?
- Thief in the night means something stealthy or that occurs without warning.
- What part of speech is thief in the night?
- Thief in the night is a noun.
- How do you pronounce thief in the night?
- Thief in the night is pronounced /θiːf ɪn ðə naɪt/.
- What is the plural of thief in the night?
- The plural of thief in the night is thieves in the night.
Words near thief in the night in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: thief in the 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-thief in the night.ogg.
Cite this entry: “thief in the night.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thief_in_the_night. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.