Midnight
nounTwelve o'clock at night; the middle of the night.
How to spell midnight
8 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce midnight
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does midnight mean?
- nounTwelve o'clock at night; the middle of the night.
Midnight in a sentence
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The train was delayed and did not arrive until midnight.
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The report is due by midnight, so she worked late at the office.
Where does midnight come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Midnight is a thoroughly native English word, built from two Old English elements: 'midd', meaning 'middle', and 'niht', meaning 'night'. The compound appears in early English texts as 'midniht', literally 'the middle of the night', and it has kept that plain meaning for more than a thousand years. The 'mid-' element is the same one that gives us 'midday', 'midsummer' and 'midway', all sharing the sense of a central point. The spelling holds onto the silent 'gh' of 'night', a relic of an old Germanic sound (a throaty consonant once heard in words like the German 'Nacht') that English speakers stopped pronouncing but never stopped writing. Because the word is so familiar and the 'mid' and 'night' parts are both common, it gives spellers very little trouble beyond remembering that silent 'gh'.
How the word is built
- mid- (middle)
- night (the period of darkness)
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