Nocturnal

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: noc=tur=nal

CIDE DICTIONARY

Nocturnal, a. [L. nocturnalis, nocturnus, fr. nox, noctis, night. See Night, and cf. Nocturn.].

•  Of, pertaining to, done or occuring in, the night; as, nocturnal darkness, cries, expedition, etc.; -- opposed to diurnal.  Dryden.  [1913 Webster]
•  Having a habit of seeking food or moving about at night; as, nocturnal birds and insects; raccoons are nocturnal.; -- of animals.  [1913 Webster]

Nocturnal, n. 

 An instrument formerly used for taking the altitude of the stars, etc., at sea.  I. Watts.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Nocturnal, adj. of or in the night; done or active by night.

Idiom

nocturnal emission involuntary emission of semen during sleep.

Derivative

nocturnally adv.

Etymology

LL nocturnalis f. L nocturnus of the night f. nox noctis night

ROGET THESAURUS

Nocturnal

Evening

N evening, eve, decline of day, fall of day, close of day, candlelight, candlelighting, eventide, nightfall, curfew, dusk, twilight, eleventh hour, sunset, sundown, going down of the sun, cock-shut, dewy eve, gloaming, bedtime, afternoon, postmeridian, p, m, autumn, fall, fall of the leaf, autumnal equinox, Indian summer, St. Luke's summer, St. Martin's summer, midnight, dead of night, witching hour, witching hour of night, witching time of night, winter, killing time, vespertine, autumnal, nocturnal, midnight, the outpost of advancing day, sable-vested Night, this gorgeous arch with golden worlds inlay'd.

Darkness

N darkness, absence of light, blackness, obscurity, gloom, murk, dusk, Cimmerian darkness, Stygian darkness, Egyptian darkness, night, midnight, dead of night, witching hour of night, witching time of night, blind man's holiday, darkness visible, darkness that can be felt, palpable obscure, Erebus, the jaws of darkness, sablevested night, shade, shadow, umbra, penumbra, sciagraphy, obscuration, occultation, adumbration, obumbration, obtenebration, offuscation, caligation, extinction, eclipse, total eclipse, gathering of the clouds, shading, distribution of shade, chiaroscuro, noctivagation, black body, hohlraum, black hole, dark star, dark matter, cold dark matter, dark, darksome, darkling, obscure, tenebrious, sombrous, pitch dark, pitchy, pitch black, caliginous, black, sunless, lightless &c (sun) (light), somber, dusky, unilluminated &c (illuminate), nocturnal, dingy, lurid, gloomy, murky, murksome, shady, umbrageous, overcast, cloudy, darkened, dark as pitch, dark as a pit, dark as Erebus, benighted, noctivagant, noctivagous, in the dark, in the shade, brief as the lightning in the collied night, eldest Night and Chaos, ancestors of Nature, the blackness of the noonday night, the prayer of Ajax was for light.

Blackness

VB be black, render black, blacken, infuscate, denigrate, blot, blotch, smutch, smirch, darken, black, sable, swarthy, somber, dark, inky, ebony, ebon, atramentous, jetty, coal-black, jet-black, fuliginous, pitchy, sooty, swart, dusky, dingy, murky, Ethiopic, low-toned, low in tone, of the deepest dye, black as jet, black as my hat, black as a shoe, black as a tinker's pot, black as November, black as thunder, black as midnight, nocturnal, nigrescent, gray, obscure.