Nighttime

How to spell nighttime

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce nighttime

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does nighttime mean?

1. nounThe period of darkness between sunset and sunrise.

Nighttime in a sentence

• The office building is patrolled by security guards during the nighttime.

• The medication is best taken at nighttime because it causes drowsiness.

Where does nighttime come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a closed compound built from two of the oldest words in English, both inherited from Old English rather than borrowed. 'Night' descends from the Old English 'niht' (earlier 'neaht'), a Germanic word for the dark hours that has close cousins in German 'Nacht' and Dutch 'nacht', all tracing back to a shared ancient root for the dark part of the day. 'Time' comes from Old English 'tima', meaning a stretch or point in the passing of events, related to the idea of something being measured out or divided up. The two were written separately for centuries, then often hyphenated as 'night-time', before the fully closed spelling settled into common use. The spelling trap lives at the seam: because 'night' ends in t and 'time' begins with t, the joined word carries a doubled t (nigh-t-t-ime) that writers frequently drop.

How the word is built

• night (the dark period)
• time (a span of hours); the two words join with a doubled t where 'night' meets 'time'