nocturne

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The pianist is playing a nocturne, a lovely bit of night music.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 29, 2026

“Fall River Boiler,” a black-and-white image that he photographed in 1978 and printed a decade or so later, is a nocturne of texture and tone: feathery asbestos, gloppy encrustations, circular black holes.

From New York Times • Dec. 30, 2021

For various reasons, I was expected to deliver a longish address at my high-school graduation, and after composing it—the easy part—I turned to a speech therapist and rehearsed as if it were a Chopin nocturne.

From Slate • Dec. 6, 2017

“And then something will surface. I just wrote my first real classical piece, a nocturne for piano and orchestra. I hope I get it played here sometime.”

From The New Yorker • May 1, 2017

She got my bathrobe for me, and then she dried my hair with those powerful fingers of hers as gently as she might coax a nocturne from our old piano.

From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson