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nighthawk

noun

Simple meaning

A person whose preference or custom is to remain awake and active during the night and the early morning hours.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

nythawk

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈnaɪthɔk

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A person who likes to be active late at night

  2. A person whose preference or custom is to remain awake and active during the night and the early morning hours.

  3. A nighthawker (metal detectorist who works illegally at night).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Frequency
Rare

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A person who likes to be active late at night

Used this way, nighthawk is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • night owl , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Nighthawker / unlicensed

nighthawk design

New

western nighthawkpacific nighthawk

Other combinations

common nighthawklesser nighthawkeastern nighthawktexas nighthawknighthawk stealth

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: person who likes to be active late at night

night owlRare

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.