# night

> English word · Noun · IPA /naɪt/ · frequency rank #221

## Definitions
1. The time when the Sun is below the horizon when the sky is dark.
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.
5. A day, or at least a night.
6. Nightfall.
7. Darkness (due to it being nighttime).
8. A dark blue colour, midnight blue.
9. A night's worth of competitions, generally one game.

## Etymology
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”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots nicht (“night”), Yola neeght, nieght, nyeght (“night”), North Frisian naacht, Nacht, noach, nåcht (“night”), Saterland Frisian Noacht (“night”), West Frisian nacht (“night”), Cimbrian, Dutch nacht (“night”), German, Low German Nacht (“night”), Luxembourgish Nuecht (“night”), Mòcheno nòcht (“night”), Vilamovian naocht (“night”), Yiddish נאַכט (nakht, “night”), Danish nat (“night”), Faroese nátt (“night”), Icelandic nátt, nótt (“night”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish natt (“night”), Scanian nøtt (“night”), Gothic 𐌽𐌰𐌷𐍄𐍃 (nahts, “night”); also Breton noz (“night”), Cornish and Welsh nos (“night”), Irish anocht (“tonight”), Manx noght (“tonight”), Scottish Gaelic a-nochd, an nochd (“tonight”), Latin nox (“night”) (whence English nox, a doublet), Greek νύχτα (nýchta, “night”), Albanian natë (“night”), Latgalian and Latvian nakts (“night”), Lithuanian naktis (“night”), Belarusian ноч (noč, “night”), Bulgarian нощ (nošt, “night”), Czech, Polish, and Slovak noc (“night”), Macedonian ноќ (noḱ, “night”), Russian ночь (nočʹ, “night”), Serbo-Croatian ноћ, noć (“night”), Slovene noč (“night”), Ukrainian ніч (nič, “night”), Tocharian A nakcu (“last night; at night”), Tocharian B nekcīye (“last night; at night”), Hittite 𒉈𒆪𒊻 (nekuz, “evening, nightfall; dawn, twilight”), Sanskrit नक्त् (nákt).

## Easily confused with
- **NIH** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/night-vs-nih)
- **nit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/night-vs-nit)
- **NIST** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/night-vs-nist)
- **Nisha** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/night-vs-nisha)
- **nights** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/night-vs-nights)
- **nightly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/night-vs-nightly)
- **nighter** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/night-vs-nighter)
- **nite** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/night-vs-nite)
- **nigh** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/nigh-vs-night)
- **niche** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/niche-vs-night)
- **Nigel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/nigel-vs-night)
- **nigga** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/nigga-vs-night)
- **Niger** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/niger-vs-night)
- **naught** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/naught-vs-night)
- **knight** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/knight-vs-night)

## Common misspellings (8)
`inght`, `ngiht`, `nigght`, `nighht`, `nightt`, `nigth`, `nihgt`, `nnight`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/night