Overnight
adverbDuring or for the duration of the night, or by extension very suddenly.
How to spell overnight
9 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce overnight
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does overnight mean?
- adverbDuring or for the duration of the night, or by extension very suddenly.
- adjectiveLasting, happening, or intended for a single night.
Overnight in a sentence
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adverb
We decided to stay overnight at a hotel near the airport.
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adjective
She packed a small overnight bag for the conference.
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adverb
Leave the dough to rise overnight in the fridge.
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adjective
The courier offers an overnight delivery option for urgent parcels.
Where does overnight come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a transparent native English compound, built from over and night, both of which trace back to Old English. The word over comes from Old English ofer, meaning 'above' or 'across', while night descends from Old English niht, the dark hours between dusk and dawn, a word shared with German Nacht and ultimately rooted in an ancient term for darkness. Joined together, overnight originally carried the literal sense of something lasting across or through the night, as in staying somewhere from evening until morning. By the nineteenth century it had also gained the figurative meaning of 'very suddenly', as if a change had happened while everyone slept. Because both halves are familiar everyday words, the only real spelling decision is remembering that it is written as one solid word, not as 'over night' or hyphenated.
How the word is built
- over- (across, through)
- night (the period of darkness)
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