Over night or overnight?
over night is an adverb meaning “Alternative form of overnight”; overnight is an adverb meaning “During or throughout the night, especially during the evening or night just past”. over night is written as two words and overnight as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between over night and overnight?
| over night | overnight | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adverb | adverb, adjective, verb, noun |
| Meaning | Alternative form of overnight | During or throughout the night, especially during the evening or night just past In a very short (but unspecified) amount of time Occurring between dusk and dawn |
| Example | none recorded | Let it run overnight and we'll check on it in the morning |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /əʊvə(ɹ)ˈnaɪt/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 15 times per million words |
Sources: over night and overnight in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of over night and overnight
over night
- 1
Alternative form of overnight
overnight
- 1
During or throughout the night, especially during the evening or night just past
Let it run overnight and we'll check on it in the morning
- 2
Occurring between dusk and dawn
The overnight ferry docked at 10 a.m
- 3
To stay overnight; to spend the night
- 4
An item delivered or completed overnight
Have you looked at the overnights yet?
- 5
In a very short (but unspecified) amount of time
The change seemed to happen overnight
- 6
Complete before the next morning
Don't expect overnight delivery
- 7
USTo send something for delivery the next day
We can overnight you the documents for signature
- 8
An overnight stay, especially in a hotel or other lodging facility
Some will also have to work less coveted schedules like overnights and weekends just to start building their career and demo tape
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, over night or overnight?
over night is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; overnight 15 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search over night vs overnight?
“over night vs overnight” is searched about 50 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“overnight vs over night”, “over night or overnight”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.