Origin: Germanic Old English suffix
Midnight has 3 different meanings across 1 category:
12 o'clock at night; the middle of the night
"young children should not be allowed to stay up until midnight"
The middle of the night: the sixth temporal hour, equidistant between sunset and sunrise.
"After staring at her phone for an eternity, she finally realized it was truly midnight when the sky turned completely black above the city skyline."
In plain English: Midnight is the exact moment when the clock hits twelve o'clock at night and a new day begins.
"We set the alarm for midnight so we could wake up early enough to see the sunrise."
Usage: Midnight refers to the exact moment when the clock strikes twelve at the end of the day or the beginning of the next. Use it as a noun to describe this specific time of day, not as an adjective modifying other words like "midnight blue."
Utterly dark or black.
"The old lighthouse beam cut through the midnight fog, revealing that the ocean below was utterly dark and black."
"The midnight show on television is the last program before the channel goes off the air."
The word "midnight" comes from Old English midniht, which literally means "middle of the night." It entered English as a straightforward combination of the words for "middle" and "night," a formation that has remained unchanged in meaning over time.