Noun: nocturnal
| Singular | nocturnal |
| Plural | nocturnals |
Sample Sentences
-
A rather different instrument was the nocturnal: it enabled you to tell the time at night, provided you knew the date, from the position of the stars in the constellation of the Great Bear, which rotate around the Pole Star. [2015, David Wootton, The Invention of Science, Penguin, published 2016, page 188:]
Nouns inflected like nocturnal
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Middle French nocturnal, from Latin nocturnālis (“nocturnal”), from Latin nocturnus (“nocturnal”), from Latin nox (“night”), from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts (“night”). Cognates include Ancient Greek νύξ (núx), Sanskrit नक्ति (nákti), Old English niht (English night) and Proto-Slavic *noťь. See: Latin Nouns '
nocturnālis', Latin Nouns '
nocturnus', Latin Nouns '
nox', Ancient Greek Nouns '
νύξ', Old English Nouns '
niht', English Nouns '
night'.