Darkness vs. Night — What's the Difference?

Darkness, the polar opposite of brightness, is understood as a lack of illumination or an absence of visible light. Human vision is unable to distinguish color in conditions of either high brightness or very low brightness.

Night (also described as night time or night-time or nighttime, unconventionally spelled as nite) is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends on the location and varies throughout the year, based on factors such as season and latitude.

Lacking or having very little light

The period between sunset and sunrise, especially the hours of darkness.

Lacking brightness

This period considered as a unit of time

Reflecting only a small fraction of incident light; tending toward black

This period considered from its conditions

Served without milk or cream

The period between dusk and midnight of a given day

Being or having a complexion that is not light in color.

The period between evening and bedtime.

Sullen or threatening

This period considered from its activities

Characterized by gloom or pessimism; dismal or bleak

This period set aside for a specific purpose

Being or characterized by morbid or grimly satiric humor.

The period between bedtime and morning

Unknown or concealed; mysterious

One's sleep during this period

Lacking enlightenment, knowledge, or culture

Nightfall

Evil in nature or effect; sinister

Darkness

Morally corrupt; vicious

A time or condition of gloom, obscurity, ignorance, or despair

Having richness or depth

A time or condition marked by absence of moral or ethical values

Not giving performances; closed

Of or relating to the night

(Linguistics) Pronounced with the back of the tongue raised toward the velum. Used of the sound (l) in words like full.

Intended for use at night

Absence of light.

Working during the night

A place having little or no light.

Active chiefly at night

Night; nightfall

Occurring after dark

A deep hue or color.

(countable) The period between sunset and sunrise, when a location faces far away from the sun, thus when the sky is dark.

Darks Pieces of laundry having a dark color.

The period of darkness beginning at the end of evening astronomical twilight when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon, and ending at the beginning of morning astronomical twilight.

(uncountable) The state of being dark; lack of light; the absolute or comparative absence of light.

A period of time often defined in the legal system as beginning 30 minutes after sunset, and ending 30 minutes before sunrise.

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

(countable) An evening or night spent at a particular activity.

(uncountable) Gloom; gloominess; depression.

(countable) A night (and part of the days before and after it) spent in a place away from home, e.g. a hotel.

(countable) The product of being dark.

(uncountable) Nightfall.

(uncountable) Lack of understanding or compassion; spiritual or mental blindness.

(uncountable) Darkness (due to it being nighttime).

(uncountable) Secrecy; concealment.

(uncountable) A dark blue colour, midnight blue.

(uncountable) Lack of knowledge; obscurity or meaning or intelligibility; the unknown.

A night's worth of competitions, generally one game.

(uncountable) Hell.

Ellipsis of good night

The absence of light; blackness; obscurity; gloom.

To spend a night (in a place), to overnight.

A state of privacy; secrecy.

That part of the natural day when the sun is beneath the horizon, or the time from sunset to sunrise; esp., the time between dusk and dawn, when there is no light of the sun, but only moonlight, starlight, or artificial light.

A state of ignorance or error, especially on moral or religious subjects; hence, wickedness; impurity.

Darkness; obscurity; concealment.

Want of clearness or perspicuity; obscurity; as, the darkness of a subject, or of a discussion.

Intellectual and moral darkness; ignorance.

A state of distress or trouble.

A lifeless or unenlivened period, as when nature seems to sleep.

Absence of light or illumination

The time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark outside

An unilluminated area;

The time between sunset and midnight;

Absence of moral or spiritual values;

The period spent sleeping;

An unenlightened state;

The dark part of the diurnal cycle considered a time unit;

Having a dark or somber color

Darkness;

A swarthy complexion

A shortening of nightfall;

A period of ignorance or backwardness or gloom

Roman goddess of night; daughter of Erebus; counterpart of Greek Nyx