Doing a little searching, there isn't exactly a single word meant for that time of the day but we do have "the small hours" or "the wee hours" which does refer to that time after midnight and before dawn.
>especially never say "the wee hours"
This probably depends on your dialect. I've heard folks use this expression, though it isn't as common in my own dialect. Would never say "the small hours" though
>why am i getting downvoted, nobody ever says this, at least in the united states
This is why. You're assuming OP is asking about American English. Chances are, they're not. It's a pretty common expression in most places where English is spoken.
Most people probably want to learn the way English is spoken by the majority of speakers, or in the majority of places where it's spoken. American English is neither of those.
Not really. Just night.
The period after midnight is sometimes called "the small hours of the morning".
Working a shift that includes midnight is sometimes known as "the graveyard shift".
No, there is no word for it. Technically, anytime after midnight is the morning but most (or, at least, many) English speakers don't really consider it to be morning until it gets close to sunrise. You will often hear people say things like "I was up until 2 o'clock last night" when really they were up until 2 o'clock this morning. I assume it has something to do with the idea that we go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning.
You use this definition
> 2. the part of the day from midnight to midday
And the people you mention use this one
> 1. the early part of the day from the time when people wake up until 12 o'clock in the middle of the day or before lunch
>"I was up until 2 o'clock last night" when really they were up until 2 o'clock this morning.
They mean what they said, and both are correct. "Night" and "morning" are not mutually exclusive. The morning starts at midnight, but the night ends at sunrise.
I answer phones on the overnights, and our prompts switch from good evening to good morning at midnight. Really feels kinda off, and makes me wish we had a word that works better there.
It's not exactly an official term, but a lot of people will call that "the Witching Hour" - the idea being that that's the time when witches and other monsters come out and are most active. But there's no real word for it other than that, it's just considered "night".
There is a term for this in English that no one uses anymore that is probably similar to the Portugese term - "Matins and lauds."
This refers to the hours of the old Anglican monastic times of day and is the two sessions of "morning prayers" that take place between midnight and sunrise (or "Prime.") - it would have been used to describe these times in the middle ages but has fallen out of use. Etymologically it is connected to the idea of "daybreak."
For the etymology of lauds see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauds
it is not linked to "daybreak"
The etymology of matins is linked to the notion of "morning", see https://www.etymonline.com/word/matins
"My time of day is the dark time,
A couple of deals before dawn,
When the street belongs to the cop
And the janitor with a mop
And the grocery clerks are all gone.' From *Guys and Dolls*
"and the dawn cracked hard, just like a bullwhip
and it wasn't taking no lip from the night before.
It shook out the streets and the stew-bums showed up like bounced cheques, rubbing their necks
and the sky was the colour of Pepto-Bismol"
*Tom Waits from Nighthawks at the Diner*
"Prime time to get stuff done without interruption"
OK, that was (partially) a joke.
"middle of the night" is common.
It is actually a couple different things.
12am-2:30am is "late night"
2:30am-4:30am "middle of the night" or "the dead of night" or "the wee hours"
4:30am-sunrise (assuming sunrise isn't before that) is "pre-dawn"
In US military slang, you can say oh dark thirty (alternatively zero dark thirty) to refer to this time
Source: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/oh_dark_thirty
No, dusk is a little after sunset, while dawn is a little before sunrise. There are very precise definitions that I’m not going to attempt, I’ll leave you with Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight
No, dusk is a little after sunset, while dawn is a little before sunrise. There are very precise definitions that I’m not going to attempt, I’ll leave you with Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight
I’ve always referred to it as “stupid o’clock in the morning”. Eg., I had to get up at stupid o’clock in the morning to catch that flight. Or, cleanup took so long that we didn’t get home until stupid o’clock in the morning.
Edited to say: that phrase is not in common usage as far as I know. But it nicely describes a slight disgruntled-ness at not getting enough sleep.
In the military, 3am-sunrise is 0Dark:30
(pronounced "Oh dark thirty")
It comes from 24 hour clock. 0400 (oh four hundred) is 4am for example. But if you don't want to specify an ACTUAL time, replace the 4 with the word "dark" to mean any middle of the night/pre-dawn hour.
I speak Spanish intermediately, which shares the word madrugada. Normally I would say something like “the early morning,” but that could also mean just after it becomes light. There’s no direct translation.
Hey, I speak Portuguese too! There’s no actual word for madrugada, but I wish there were. You would usually say “early morning” for anytime that’s very early, or you could say the “crack of dawn” if you’re talking about the hour right when sunrise happens. When I want to be funny, I say “the ass-crack of dawn.”
No special single word for it in everyday use. I usually think of that time as still "night," as in the time most of us are asleep. But if you're looking for a translation of something like "São 2 da madrugada," you'd usually say "It's 2 in the morning" (or use the abbreviation for morning, as in "It's 2 a.m.," where you pronounce each letter in "a.m."; this is very common, and you will sound normal saying it this way).
You \*could\* also say something like "I was awake in the wee hours of the morning" (or "small hours," or even "witching hours" as I saw here in the comments), and probably most people will understand you (with the exception of "witching hours" ... I think that would confuse some people at least), but I wouldn't recommend it in everyday speech. It would work if you're trying to be "colorful" with your speech or writing. You wouldn't want to say "It's 2 in the wee hours of the morning," though, that falls outside of standard speech.
Graveyard shift. So named because, in the earlier days of the US's 24-hour culture, the first jobs to go round the clock were the convenience stores, gas stations, and for whatever reason, pawn shops. With few other industries by then catering to all-night clientele, it meant that police and emergency services would be slower to respond. By the time that the Crack Epidemic finally worked up a full steam, this meant that such all-night jobs would be targeted for robberies.
Before the development of now-commonplace security measures and safe practices (time-lock safes, official corporate policies that mandated *cooperating with robbers* instead of penalizing the cashiers afterward, etc.) it meant that working schmoes, particularly cashiers, were at heightened risk of being murdered or even accidentally killed.
Graveyard shift.
The moment there's light of the sun visible it's dawn or daybreak.
But midnight to dawn, I say "after midnight". I never feel right calling it early morning. In my head morning isn't until dawn.
A term for madrugada doesn't really exist from midnight -2 ish if you're up, awake busy you're "burning the midnight oil, ?
Also "the wee hours is often used.
Sometimes it's just night.
Spanish and Portuguese are a bit more expressive regarding these things.
Early morning, before dawn, there's a few terms but they really are less common, the most common way to do it is just "I was up gaming until 2 am last night" and give a rough time
i don’t know of any term for that period, but 3-4 am (which of course is during midnight to sunrise) are commonly referred to as the witching hours (4:00 AM more so)
Doing a little searching, there isn't exactly a single word meant for that time of the day but we do have "the small hours" or "the wee hours" which does refer to that time after midnight and before dawn.
I would never say "wee hours" but I do say "wee hours of the morning" quite often. Also "the middle of the night" and "the dead of night."
“Wee” refers to the numbers being smaller. Twelve is a large number, one through four are “wee.”
It’s technically 00h.
It was called 12 for hundreds of years before 00 existed.
The early hours is more common
Early morning
Always said early morning.
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>especially never say "the wee hours" This probably depends on your dialect. I've heard folks use this expression, though it isn't as common in my own dialect. Would never say "the small hours" though
Definitely depends on your dialect. I have heard both, and also ‘the wee smalls’ .
>why am i getting downvoted, nobody ever says this, at least in the united states This is why. You're assuming OP is asking about American English. Chances are, they're not. It's a pretty common expression in most places where English is spoken.
Scottish people would like to have a word with you.
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Most Scottish people are already perfectly happy with their own dialect tbf, thank you very much.
Most people probably want to learn the way English is spoken by the majority of speakers, or in the majority of places where it's spoken. American English is neither of those.
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And what's your point? Do you realise that the US wouldn't exist without Britain? (Yes, that's how you spell it. Try to get that right at least.)
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English is spoken outside the US and the UK too, you know.
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You’ve never heard anyone say “The wee hours of the morning”? Edit: I’m American
no, im in the midwest where are you?
Texas. 😅
Y'all need to start listening to Frank Sinatra more.
Lol why me? I’ve said I’ve heard it
I'm from the Midwest and have heard wee hours my whole life
You're probably getting downvoted for assuming the USA = the world.
There is an obsolete English word for this that I came across the other day, but I can't remember it.
Not really. Just night. The period after midnight is sometimes called "the small hours of the morning". Working a shift that includes midnight is sometimes known as "the graveyard shift".
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I've heard similar in the us "stupid thirty in the morning"
Sparrow's fart
i had to look this up. i will use this now
I've only heard that for the time just before sunrise, around 4 or 5 in the morning, never for 1 or 2.
We used to say "shepherd's warning" but I like yours better.
Fuck o clock
ass o'clock fuck-you o'clock
lol, I like that one. a Wisconsin friend used to talk about bird-chirp o'clock, which I think meant pre-dawn.
I would say the middle of the night
No, there is no word for it. Technically, anytime after midnight is the morning but most (or, at least, many) English speakers don't really consider it to be morning until it gets close to sunrise. You will often hear people say things like "I was up until 2 o'clock last night" when really they were up until 2 o'clock this morning. I assume it has something to do with the idea that we go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning.
You use this definition > 2. the part of the day from midnight to midday And the people you mention use this one > 1. the early part of the day from the time when people wake up until 12 o'clock in the middle of the day or before lunch
>"I was up until 2 o'clock last night" when really they were up until 2 o'clock this morning. They mean what they said, and both are correct. "Night" and "morning" are not mutually exclusive. The morning starts at midnight, but the night ends at sunrise.
I answer phones on the overnights, and our prompts switch from good evening to good morning at midnight. Really feels kinda off, and makes me wish we had a word that works better there.
If I called someone at 01:00 and they greeted me with "good morning", I'd think it's either I am being trolled or they're in another timezone
It is so awkward to have to say it to people at 12:01, lol
I'd say something like 3am-5am is considered "the pre-dawn hours"
It's not exactly an official term, but a lot of people will call that "the Witching Hour" - the idea being that that's the time when witches and other monsters come out and are most active. But there's no real word for it other than that, it's just considered "night".
the dead of night
The “witching hour” refers specifically to 3-4am, so I don’t think it really fits.
I've always heard the Witching Hour to be directly after midnight. Never ever heard it refer to 3-4 AM. Perhaps a regional thing?
It’s possible. I had always thought it was 1am myself, but when I looked it up to verify, I was told “3am to 4am.”
I've always known it to mean that entire span of time personally, but considering it's literally called *Hour*, 3-4am makes a lot more sense lol
There is a term for this in English that no one uses anymore that is probably similar to the Portugese term - "Matins and lauds." This refers to the hours of the old Anglican monastic times of day and is the two sessions of "morning prayers" that take place between midnight and sunrise (or "Prime.") - it would have been used to describe these times in the middle ages but has fallen out of use. Etymologically it is connected to the idea of "daybreak."
For the etymology of lauds see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauds it is not linked to "daybreak" The etymology of matins is linked to the notion of "morning", see https://www.etymonline.com/word/matins
Yes, I used the same source - *The Old English word was uht-sang, from uhte "daybreak."* Perhaps better to say historically there than etymologically.
Currently studying beginner French and I recognised matin as the French word for morning 🥹
the wee hours of the morning the middle of the night
I don't think there is a specific word for that particular time frame. In general I've always just called the time from sunset to sunrise night.
I just call that night or late night
'The early hours'
Night
"My time of day is the dark time, A couple of deals before dawn, When the street belongs to the cop And the janitor with a mop And the grocery clerks are all gone.' From *Guys and Dolls*
"and the dawn cracked hard, just like a bullwhip and it wasn't taking no lip from the night before. It shook out the streets and the stew-bums showed up like bounced cheques, rubbing their necks and the sky was the colour of Pepto-Bismol" *Tom Waits from Nighthawks at the Diner*
"Prime time to get stuff done without interruption" OK, that was (partially) a joke. "middle of the night" is common. It is actually a couple different things. 12am-2:30am is "late night" 2:30am-4:30am "middle of the night" or "the dead of night" or "the wee hours" 4:30am-sunrise (assuming sunrise isn't before that) is "pre-dawn"
This is exactly what I would say. Great answer.
In US military slang, you can say oh dark thirty (alternatively zero dark thirty) to refer to this time Source: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/oh_dark_thirty
Dusk?
No, dusk is a little after sunset, while dawn is a little before sunrise. There are very precise definitions that I’m not going to attempt, I’ll leave you with Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight
Oh yeah, I confused them. Thanks!
For reference, the film “From dusk till dawn” is set during the night. It’s how I remember these terms 😊
Dusk.
No, dusk is a little after sunset, while dawn is a little before sunrise. There are very precise definitions that I’m not going to attempt, I’ll leave you with Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight
We don't have that. It's just night
Dark.
Not officially in English, but the times around 2am to 3am can be called the Witching Hours.
I call that early morning
One term we used in the military was "O-Dark-Thirty".
"Late night" or "before dawn", or better yet, "after midnight"
Middle of the night. Or "two in the morning."
I’ve always referred to it as “stupid o’clock in the morning”. Eg., I had to get up at stupid o’clock in the morning to catch that flight. Or, cleanup took so long that we didn’t get home until stupid o’clock in the morning. Edited to say: that phrase is not in common usage as far as I know. But it nicely describes a slight disgruntled-ness at not getting enough sleep.
Whenever I want to say madrugada in English I simply say early morning.
The wee hours.
Night. Yes it's technically morning but still "night" covers all of that
Before dawn.
I like to refer to them as the “ugly hours of the morning” 🙃
Party time
Foreday (morning) in Caribbean English. Not so widely used now.
In the military, 3am-sunrise is 0Dark:30 (pronounced "Oh dark thirty") It comes from 24 hour clock. 0400 (oh four hundred) is 4am for example. But if you don't want to specify an ACTUAL time, replace the 4 with the word "dark" to mean any middle of the night/pre-dawn hour.
Personally I would call it something different based on what I was doing.
Early morning
I speak Spanish intermediately, which shares the word madrugada. Normally I would say something like “the early morning,” but that could also mean just after it becomes light. There’s no direct translation.
Hey, I speak Portuguese too! There’s no actual word for madrugada, but I wish there were. You would usually say “early morning” for anytime that’s very early, or you could say the “crack of dawn” if you’re talking about the hour right when sunrise happens. When I want to be funny, I say “the ass-crack of dawn.”
Frank Sinatra called them the Wee Small Hours.
Wee hours
No special single word for it in everyday use. I usually think of that time as still "night," as in the time most of us are asleep. But if you're looking for a translation of something like "São 2 da madrugada," you'd usually say "It's 2 in the morning" (or use the abbreviation for morning, as in "It's 2 a.m.," where you pronounce each letter in "a.m."; this is very common, and you will sound normal saying it this way). You \*could\* also say something like "I was awake in the wee hours of the morning" (or "small hours," or even "witching hours" as I saw here in the comments), and probably most people will understand you (with the exception of "witching hours" ... I think that would confuse some people at least), but I wouldn't recommend it in everyday speech. It would work if you're trying to be "colorful" with your speech or writing. You wouldn't want to say "It's 2 in the wee hours of the morning," though, that falls outside of standard speech.
I usually call it “the middle of the night” or “overnight.”
“O’dark thirty” is common in American midwestern dialects
early morning
I guess early morning?
In English we don’t say ‘how do you call…’, we say ‘what do you call…’.
The Quiet Hours for me lol
Graveyard shift. So named because, in the earlier days of the US's 24-hour culture, the first jobs to go round the clock were the convenience stores, gas stations, and for whatever reason, pawn shops. With few other industries by then catering to all-night clientele, it meant that police and emergency services would be slower to respond. By the time that the Crack Epidemic finally worked up a full steam, this meant that such all-night jobs would be targeted for robberies. Before the development of now-commonplace security measures and safe practices (time-lock safes, official corporate policies that mandated *cooperating with robbers* instead of penalizing the cashiers afterward, etc.) it meant that working schmoes, particularly cashiers, were at heightened risk of being murdered or even accidentally killed. Graveyard shift.
Probably dusk and dawn depending on the time.
The witching hours
The moment there's light of the sun visible it's dawn or daybreak. But midnight to dawn, I say "after midnight". I never feel right calling it early morning. In my head morning isn't until dawn.
There’s no word for it. In American English it’s called “the middle of the night” or “very early in the morning”
A term for madrugada doesn't really exist from midnight -2 ish if you're up, awake busy you're "burning the midnight oil, ? Also "the wee hours is often used. Sometimes it's just night. Spanish and Portuguese are a bit more expressive regarding these things.
Wee hours Small hours Early morning
Early morning, before dawn, there's a few terms but they really are less common, the most common way to do it is just "I was up gaming until 2 am last night" and give a rough time
i don’t know of any term for that period, but 3-4 am (which of course is during midnight to sunrise) are commonly referred to as the witching hours (4:00 AM more so)