How to Use nocturnal in a Sentence

nocturnal

adjective
  • The adults are nocturnal and rest during the day around the base of the plants (in the soil or thatch).
    oregonlive, 27 Aug. 2021
  • One night, the group hired a local guide to drive in to the park to look for nocturnal wildlife.
    Scott McMurren, Anchorage Daily News, 23 July 2022
  • The nocturnal birds have tufts on their heads that look like horns or ears.
    Helena Wegner, Sacramento Bee, 28 Mar. 2024
  • The music fades and where there were the nocturnal crickets at the start, now there are ocean waves.
    Steve Hochman, SPIN, 9 Mar. 2023
  • But a lot of it is unseen; a lot of the animals in the desert are nocturnal.
    Hazlitt, 26 Oct. 2023
  • Don’t miss: A game drive at night to see the nocturnal animals come to life as the sun sets.
    Christopher Elliott, Forbes, 20 Oct. 2024
  • The nocturnal owls don’t hoot but make strange screams and hissings sounds at night.
    Karl Schneider, The Indianapolis Star, 2 Apr. 2024
  • The nocturnal owls don’t hoot but make strange screams and hissings sounds at night.
    Karl Schneider, The Indianapolis Star, 1 Apr. 2024
  • Dogs, on the other hand, evolved from wolves who are nocturnal hunters.
    Jennifer Nelson, Southern Living, 12 Mar. 2021
  • And the kākāpō, a large, nocturnal, flightless parrot, came in third, with 4,548 votes.
    Alexa Robles-Gil, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Sep. 2024
  • And for at least one nocturnal species, the vital clue on a moonless night seems to be our own Milky Way.
    Christie Taylor, Popular Science, 13 Mar. 2024
  • Learn about the history of the solstice and watch for nocturnal wildlife.
    courant.com, 25 Nov. 2020
  • In the desert, many animals are nocturnal, so tracks are one of the best ways to know which critters are out there.
    The Salt Lake Tribune, 4 Oct. 2021
  • The Amur leopard is nocturnal and lives and hunts alone – mainly in the forests of Russia and China.
    Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY, 29 Mar. 2023
  • Pha Mi bent-toed geckos are nocturnal, living in and around rocky caves, the study said.
    Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 3 June 2024
  • In the series, a nocturnal species known as gargoyles are stone during the day but come alive at night.
    Joe Otterson, Variety, 16 Oct. 2023
  • Once browns near the 20-inch mark, many become nocturnal.
    Max Inchausti, Field & Stream, 22 May 2024
  • Counter to the popular image of bats, not all of them are nocturnal.
    Eva Botkin-Kowacki, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 Sep. 2020
  • The black ghost knifefish is, as its name implies, a nocturnal hunter.
    Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 6 June 2022
  • There are some species of fish, like catfish and knife fish, that are nocturnal, Aqueon says.
    Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY, 8 July 2022
  • To escape the daytime heat, the city has also turned nocturnal.
    Jake Coyle, Detroit Free Press, 20 Aug. 2021
  • Bats are skilled nocturnal hunters that use echolocation to find, track, and catch their prey.
    Ari Daniel, NPR, 22 May 2024
  • Hogs tend to be nocturnal, so the after-dawn excursions last just a few hours.
    Allie Morris, Dallas News, 30 Nov. 2020
  • Night parrots are one of only two nocturnal parrot species in the world.
    Ashley Strickland, CNN, 9 June 2020
  • Owls, the nocturnal bird, started flying in circles and clawing at the cage right as the sky was turning dark.
    Ella Gonzales, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 12 Apr. 2024
  • Tawny owls are medium-sized nocturnal birds who have two plumage color morphs, pale gray and dark brown.
    Grrlscientist, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024
  • That evening our nocturnal visitor studied us from the edge of the campfire glow.
    Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Jan. 2024
  • The main reason for this is that bats in Oregon are nocturnal and eat insect species that are active at night.
    oregonlive, 6 June 2020
  • Witchy Owl Download This nocturnal friend might be up to some spooky trouble!
    De Elizabeth, Parents, 20 Sep. 2024
  • Native to the grasslands of East and Southern Africa, the shy, nocturnal aardwolf is a species of hyena unlike any other.
    Scott Travers, Forbes, 26 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'nocturnal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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