night
/ˈnaɪ̯t/noun, interjection, verb
night is spelled N-I-G-H-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 407 times per million words in written English, the 220th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “night vs nite” about 1,000 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, night means “The time when the Sun is below the horizon when the sky is dark” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of night is nights.
How many letters and syllables are in night?
| Letters | 5: N-I-G-H-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 407 times per million words; the 220th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is night?
Night appears 407 times per million words in written English, the 220th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce night?
- US /ˈnaɪ̯t/
- US [ˈnaɪ̯t]
- British /ˈnɑjt/
Night has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-night.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-night.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with night
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: knight, nite (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: neet.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with night?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as night from its last stressed vowel (/aɪt/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: thing.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of night
- nights plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- nite
- nighting participle, present
- nighted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does night mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The time when the Sun is below the horizon when the sky is dark.
Most animals are awake at day and sleep at night.
- 2
The period of darkness beginning at the end of evening astronomical twilight when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon, and ending at the beginning of morning astronomical twilight.
- 3
A period of time often defined in the legal system as beginning 30 minutes after sunset, and ending 30 minutes before sunrise.
- 4
An evening or night spent at a particular activity.
a night on the town
- 5
A day, or at least a night.
I stayed my friend's house for three nights.
- 6
Nightfall.
from noon till night
- 7
Darkness (due to it being nighttime).
The cat disappeared into the night.
- 8
A dark blue colour, midnight blue.
verb
- 1
To spend a night (in a place), to overnight.
interjection
- 1
Ellipsis of good night.
Night, y'all! Thanks for a great evening!
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Night in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | nuit , soirée , nuitée |
| German | Nacht, Nocht , Abend , Übernachtung , Nacht! |
| Portuguese | noite , noitada , pernoite, pernoitada , sono |
| Spanish | noche, cheno, sorna , tarde , oscuridad |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does night come from?
From Middle English nighte, night, nyght, niȝt, naht, from Old English niht, from Proto-West Germanic *naht (“night”), from Proto-Germanic *nahts (“night”), from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts (“night”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).