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Definition and Usage

– Relating to or occurring in the morning; early.

"Harry Truman - like Winston Churchill - was known to take a matutinal shot of whisky. He did it after his regular early-morning walk".

Biology

Matutinal is a term used in the life sciences, to describe an organism that is only or primarily active in the pre-dawn hours or early morning. The variant term matinal is used apparently only in entomology, often used in literature on the natural history and ecology of bees. There are numerous genera and species of bees which exhibit this behavior, presumably to escape from competition for resources, and many flowers (e.g. squash and morning glory) have adapted to this particular pollination syndrome. (See also crepuscular.)

The etymology of the term is the latin word matutinum tempus (time of the morning)^{[citation needed]}.

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