midnight

/ˌmɪdˈnaɪt/

/ˈmɪdnaɪt/

Other forms: midnights

Midnight is the moment at which one day ends and the next begins — it's twelve o' clock at night. Follow the Fairy Godmother's advice to Cinderella, and always get home before midnight.

At midnight, the date changes, and the time changes from PM to AM. It's no surprise that midnight is the very middle of the night, the word itself stemming from the Old English mid-niht, from mid, "among" or "in the middle of," and night, from niht, which appropriately means both "night" and "darkness."

Definitions of midnight

1. noun

   12 o'clock at night; the middle of the night
   “young children should not be allowed to stay up until midnight”

   type of:

   hour, time of day

   clock time