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nocturnal. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
nocturnal, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
nocturnal in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
nocturnal you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle French nocturnal, from Latin nocturnus (“nocturnal, nightly”), from Latin nox (“night”), from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts (“night”). Cognates include Ancient Greek νύξ (núx), Sanskrit नक्ति (nákti), Old English niht (English night) and Proto-Slavic *noťь.
Pronunciation
Adjective
nocturnal (comparative more nocturnal, superlative most nocturnal)
- (of a person, creature, group, or species) Primarily active during the night.
nocturnal birds
- (of an occurrence) Taking place at night, nightly.
a suspicious nocturnal outing
2013 January 1, Paul Bartel, Ashli Moore, “Avian Migration: The Ultimate Red-Eye Flight”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 5 March 2016, pages 47–48:Many of these classic methods are still used, with some modern improvements. For example, with the aid of special microphones and automated sound detection software, ornithologists recently reported […] that pine siskins (Spinus pinus) undergo an irregular, nomadic type of nocturnal migration.
Antonyms
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Translations
primarily active during the night
- Armenian: գիշերային (hy) (gišerayin)
- Belarusian: начны́ (načný)
- Bulgarian: но́щен (bg) (nóšten)
- Catalan: nocturn (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 夜的 (zh) (yè de), 晝伏夜出/昼伏夜出 (zh) (zhòufúyèchū)
- Czech: noční (cs)
- Dutch: nachtelijk (nl), nacht-, nachtactief (nl)
- Esperanto: nokta
- Finnish: yö- (former part of compound), yöllinen (fi), öinen (fi), nokturnaalinen (scientific)
- French: nocturne (fr)
- Friulian: please add this translation if you can
- Galician: nocturno m
- German: nachtaktiv (de)
- Greek: νυκτόβιος (el) (nyktóvios)
- Ancient: νυκτερινός (nukterinós)
- Hungarian: éjjeli (hu)
- Ido: noktala (io)
- Interlingua: nocturne
- Italian: notturno (it)
- Japanese: 夜行 (ja) (やこう, yakō, やぎょう, yagyō), 夜行性 (ja) (やこうせい, yakōsei)
- Korean: 야행(夜行) (ko) (yahaeng), 야행성(夜行性) (ko) (yahaengseong)
- Latvian: naksnīgs
- Maori: ohopō, moeao
- Old English: nihtlīċ
- Persian: شبانه (fa) (šabâne)
- Piedmontese: noturn
- Polish: nocny (pl)
- Portuguese: noturno (pt) m
- Romagnol: please add this translation if you can
- Russian: ночно́й (ru) (nočnój)
- Spanish: nocturno (es), noctámbulo (es), trasnochador (es)
- Swedish: natt-, nattaktiv, aktiv om natten
- Turkish: gececil, noktürnâl (tr)
- Ukrainian: нічни́й (uk) (ničnýj)
- West Frisian: nachtlik, nacht-
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Noun
nocturnal (plural nocturnals)
- A person or creature that is active at night.
- (historical) A device for telling the time at night, rather like a sundial but read according to the stars.
- Synonym: star clock
2015, David Wootton, The Invention of Science, Penguin, published 2016, page 188:A rather different instrument was the nocturnal: it enabled you to tell the time at night, provided you knew the date, from the position of the stars in the constellation of the Great Bear, which rotate around the Pole Star.
Old French
Adjective
nocturnal m (oblique and nominative feminine singular nocturnale)
- nocturnal
References
Portuguese
Adjective
nocturnal m or f (plural nocturnais)
- Pre-reform spelling (until Brazil 1943/Portugal 1990) of noturnal. Still used in countries where the agreement hasn't come into effect; may occur as a sporadic misspelling.