night jasmine
- noun
- She planted night jasmine in her yard to enjoy its beautiful blossoms and enchanting aroma at night.
Examples
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The garden was filled with the sweet fragrance of night jasmine as the sun set.
-
The sound jolted her back to the hard asphalt beneath her Reeboks and the surprising perfume of night jasmine.
Fiction book (1994) -
Every evening, the lovely scent of night jasmine wafted through the open window.
Synonyms
A small evergreen bush with white or yellow flowers that smell sweet at night
A shrub with small white flowers that smell very strong at night
How Fragrant
- UK
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is a straightforward noun–noun construction where 'night' qualifies 'jasmine', so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a jasmine plant associated with night (e.g., night‑blooming or fragrant at night). This compositional pattern is common cross‑linguistically and follows regular English noun compounding, making the meaning predictable from the constituents.
Etymology
Night jasmine gets its name from its flowers, which open after dark and give off a very sweet smell that fills the night. Because night shows when the scent comes and jasmine is a sweet-smelling flower, the name helps you remember it means a jasmine that 'smells at night'.