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# diurnal

«diurnal» in Mova's school dictionary: **Active during the day and resting at night, like most…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (diurnal)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (science) Active during the day and resting at night, like most birds, butterflies and humans. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diurnal/#m1)

2) (science) Happening every day, or during the day: «diurnal temperature changes». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diurnal/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons animals are sorted into diurnal (day-active), nocturnal (night-active) and crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk). In geography, «diurnal range» is the difference between the highest and lowest temperature in one day. Phrases: «diurnal animals», «diurnal range», «diurnal cycle».

### examples

- Squirrels are diurnal, but owls are nocturnal. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diurnal/#x1)
- Humans are diurnal animals. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diurnal/#x2)
- Most butterflies are diurnal. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diurnal/#x3)
- The desert has a large diurnal temperature range. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diurnal/#x4)
- The kookaburra is diurnal and laughs at dawn. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diurnal/#x5)
- (science) The diurnal cycle of light and dark controls when flowers open. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diurnal/#x6)

### note

Opposite: «nocturnal». Pronounced «dye-ER-nal». In maths and geography: if the hottest temperature today is 31 °C and the coldest 12 °C, the diurnal range is 31 − 12 = 19 degrees.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «diurnal» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diurnal/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.