🇬🇧 Nocturnal meaning: English Vocabulary Flash Card

Nocturnal means being awake, active, or happening at night, when it’s dark, instead of during the daytime. Many animals, like owls, bats, and some big cats, are nocturnal: they sleep during the day and do their hunting, flying, or exploring after the sun goes down.

The nocturnal crickets formed a band and released their first hit single, “Chirp All Night.”

The nocturnal owl rolled its eyes at me for yawning, like I was the weird one for being sleepy at midnight.

The nocturnal cats in our neighborhood hold a 1 a.m. singing contest and forget they’re all terrible singers.

I tried to be nocturnal like a bat, but hanging upside down just made all my snacks fall out of my pockets.

Many animals are nocturnal—like owls, bats, and many cats—because it’s cooler and safer at night, basically turning the dark into their daytime playground.

At midnight the small boy crept to the window. A nocturnal cat slipped along the fence; a nocturnal owl blinked from a branch; a nocturnal fox padded past the garden; a nocturnal moth tapped the glass. The nocturnal city hummed softly. He smiled, no longer afraid, and watched until sleep took him.

This word is at the C2 level, which means it represents the highest mastery of English. It’s often used in specialized or highly formal contexts and helps you communicate with precision and subtlety, much like a native speaker.

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