different between midnight vs darkness

English

Etymology

From Middle English midnight, midnyght, mydnyght, (also as middelni?te), from Old English midniht, middeniht, middeneaht, (also as midderneaht and middelniht), from Proto-Germanic *midjanahts (“midnight”), equivalent to mid- +? night. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Midnoacht (“midnight”), Old High German mittinaht (“midnight”), Danish midnat (“midnight”), Swedish midnatt (“midnight”), Icelandic miðnætti (“midnight”). Compare also Saterland Frisian Middernoacht (“midnight”), Dutch middernacht (“midnight”), German Mitternacht (“midnight”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?dn??t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?d?na?t/
• Hyphenation: mid?night

Noun

midnight (countable and uncountable, plural midnights)

1. The middle of the night: the sixth temporal hour, equidistant between sunset and sunrise.

1. 12 o'clock at night exactly.
   • Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman:

     "She twisted her hands behind her;

     but all the knots held good!

     She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!

     They stretched and strained in the darkness,

     and the hours crawled by like years,

     Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,

     Cold, on the stroke of midnight,

     The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

Synonyms

• (12 o'clock at night): 12 am; 00:00, 12 a.m. (sometimes proscribed), 12 midnight; see also Thesaurus:midnight

Antonyms

• noon, midday

Derived terms

• burn the midnight oil
• midnight regulation
• midnight sun
• postmidnight

Translations

Adjective

midnight (not comparable)

1. (poetic) Utterly dark or black.

See also

• (times of day) time of day; dawn, morning, noon/midday, afternoon, dusk, evening, night, midnight ^{(Category: en:Times of day)}

English

Alternative forms

• darckness (obsolete)
• darkeness (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English derknesse, from Old English deorcnes; equivalent to dark +? -ness.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?d??kn?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?d??kn?s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)kn?s, -??(?)kn?s
• Hyphenation: dark?ness

Noun

darkness (countable and uncountable, plural darknesses)

1. (uncountable) The state of being dark; lack of light; the absolute or comparative absence of light.
   • 1912, Willa Cather, The Bohemian Girl

     Over everything was darkness and thick silence, and the smell of dust and sunflowers.

   • Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

2. (uncountable) The state or quality of reflecting little light, of tending to a blackish or brownish color.

3. (uncountable) Gloom; gloominess; depression.
4. (countable) The product of being dark.
5. (uncountable) Lack of understanding or compassion; spiritual or mental blindness.
6. (uncountable) Secrecy; concealment.
7. (uncountable) Lack of knowledge; obscurity or meaning or intelligibility; the unknown.
8. (uncountable) Hell.

Antonyms

• lightness
• light

Derived terms

• pitch darkness
• semi-darkness, semidarkness

Translations

Anagrams

• Danskers