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overnight

/əʊvə(ɹ)ˈnaɪt/adverb, adjective, verb, noun

overnight is an adverb meaning “During or throughout the night, especially during the evening or night just past” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled O-V-E-R-N-I-G-H-T and has 3 syllables, and it appears 15 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does overnight mean?

adverb

  1. 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. 2

    In a very short (but unspecified) amount of time.

    The change seemed to happen overnight.

adjective

  1. 1

    Occurring between dusk and dawn.

    The overnight ferry docked at 10 a.m.

  2. 2

    Complete before the next morning.

    Don't expect overnight delivery.

  3. 3

    For which participants stay overnight.

    They sent their kids to overnight camp.

verb

  1. 1

    To stay overnight; to spend the night.

  2. 2

    USTo send something for delivery the next day.

    We can overnight you the documents for signature.

noun

  1. 1

    An item delivered or completed overnight.

    Have you looked at the overnights yet?

  2. 2

    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.

  3. 3

    Viewership ratings for a television show that are published the morning after it is broadcast, and may be revised later on.

  4. 4

    obsoleteThe fore part of the previous night; yesterday evening.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce overnight?

  • /əʊvə(ɹ)ˈnaɪt/

Overnight has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-overnight.wav, En-us-overnight.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of overnight

  • o'ernight
  • over night
  • overnite
  • overnights present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • overnighting participle, present
  • overnighted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is overnight?

Overnight appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,206th 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).

Words people confuse with overnight

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

over night vs overnight50 G

Also written: over night (one word or two).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Overnight in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germanüber Nacht (throughout the night), von heute auf morgen, von einem Tag auf den anderen (in a very short amount of time), Logiernacht (overnight stay)
Portuguesedurante a noite (throughout the night), de um dia para o outro, do dia para a noite (in a very short amount of time), pernoite (overnight stay), em uma noite, noturno (during a single night)
Frenchdu jour au lendemain (in a very short amount of time), nuitée (overnight stay), nocturne (during a single night)
Spanishde un día para otro, de la noche a la mañana (in a very short amount of time), pernocta, pernoctación (overnight stay), nocturno (during a single night)

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 overnight come from?

Inherited from Middle English overnyght, from Old English ofer niht (“through the night, overnight”), equivalent to over + night. Verbal use (late 19th c.) may have been influenced by German übernachten (16th c.), though it could also have developed independently. Compare also Dutch overnachten (“to overnight”), Middle Low German ȫvernachten (“to overnight”), West Frisian oernachtsje (“to overnight”), Saterland Frisian uurnoachtje (“to overnight”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).