nocturnal
27
4.7
- adjective
- /nɒkˈtɜrnəl/
:
nocturno
- The nocturnal habits of certain frogs make them more active when the sun goes down.
- nocturnal animal
- nocturnal habit
- nocturnal activity
Light pollution harms billions of birds and nocturnal animals.
- Light pollution harms billions of birds and nocturnal animals.
- Yeah, I guess as opposed to being a nocturnal creature, you know, like a mouse would eat primarily at night.
- And there are a couple other online content creators, Derek from More Plates, More Dates, who's hyper productive in his domain and is mostly nocturnal.
- They wake up strictly nocturnal, yes.
- Wet dreams, like a nocturnal admission or whatever.
Examples
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Now scientists understand that moths are important nocturnal pollinators.
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No, I'm nocturnal, which means I work at night, when you should be sleeping.
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We're not all nocturnal you know!
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"The cats are the worst; they are nocturnal by nature and extremely hard to locate.
Fiction book (1992) -
My sleep schedule is so bad I'm literally nocturnal at this point.
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I mean, I guess it all makes sense with the possums being nocturnal, yeah.
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Light pollution harms billions of birds and nocturnal animals.
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The owl, a nocturnal creature, is best known for his wisdom and eating up small rodents.
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Nocturnal and endangered, a marsupial mouse thought to be extinct until recently.
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Quite a few of New Zealand's oldest bird species have nocturnal habits, cryptically camouflaged plumage, or both.
Academic text (1990)
Antonyms
Compounds
How Nocturnal
Surface Forms
Morphology
nocturnal = noct + al
The element 'noct-' means 'night' (from Latin) and the suffix '-al' yields 'relating to night'; the meaning is fairly clear but the root form 'noct-' is not a standalone English word, so learners who only know the common English word 'night' may not transparently connect the parts.
Etymology
Nocturnal comes from the Latin root noct- and the word nox, meaning 'night'. So, nocturnal describes animals or events that are active or happen during the night rather than the day.