midnight

midnight — noun

1. the time at night that is shown as 12:00 on a clock, marking the moment when one

1.nounA1
Definition

the time at night that is shown as 12:00 on a clock, marking the moment when one day ends and the next begins

Example

Nala stayed up until midnight to finish her science project.

collocation: until midnight

Just before midnight, the street outside grew quiet and dark.

Common collocations
  • at midnight
  • past midnight
  • until midnight
  • before midnight
  • after midnight
  • midnight train
  • midnight snack
  • midnight deadline
Synonyms
Antonyms
  • noon

    twelve o'clock in the middle of the day

Grammar Patterns

at midnight

past midnight

until midnight

midnight + noun (modifier)

Common Mistakes

The meeting ends at midnight noon.
The meeting ends at midnight.
midnight is 12:00 at night, not 12:00 in the daytime. For midday use 'noon' instead.
I will arrive at the midnight.
I will arrive at midnight.
midnight usually does not take an article when used as a time point.
Idioms

burn the midnight oil

idiom

to study or work late into the night, especially when preparing for an exam or finishing a project with a deadline

In the weeks before her final exams, Padma burned the midnight oil almost every night.

The design team burned the midnight oil to finish the project before Friday's deadline.

do a midnight flit

idiom

to leave a place suddenly and secretly at night, especially to avoid paying money that you owe

After three months of unpaid rent, the couple did a midnight flit and left no forwarding address.

do a (moonlight/midnight) flit

idiom

To leave a place quickly and secretly, often at night, to avoid paying debts or other obligations.

After losing all his money at the casino, Tom did a midnight flit from his hotel.

Did the tenants really do a moonlight flit without paying last month's rent?

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Midnight refers specifically to 12:00 at night — the exact moment one day ends and the next begins. The middle of the night covers a broader, vaguer period of several hours during the darkest part of the night (roughly 12 to 3 AM). The dead of night is more emphatic and literary, suggesting the quietest, most still hours, often used in dramatic or mysterious contexts: 'A strange noise woke him in the dead of night.' Twelve o'clock on its own is ambiguous — it could mean either midnight or noon, so speakers usually add 'at night' or 'in the afternoon' to clarify. For practical everyday use, midnight is the precise word for schedules and deadlines ('the booking ends at midnight'), while the middle of the night works for vague time references ('the baby woke in the middle of the night').

midnight ↗the middle of the nightthe dead of nighttwelve o'clock

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • at the stroke of midnight
  • shortly after midnight

Prepositions

Etymology

Old EnglishEnglish

Midnight comes from Old English 'midniht', a combination of 'mid' (middle) and 'niht' (night). The word has been used to refer to the 12:00 point of the night since around the 1300s, when mechanical clocks first made it possible to mark an exact hour in the middle of the night.