daily

daily, diurnal, quotidian, circadian mean of each or every day.

Daily is used with reference to the ordinary con-cerns and customary happenings of life

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daily wants

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daily visits

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the daily newspaper

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Sometimes however it implies an opposition to nightly

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the daily anodyne, and nightly draught— Pope

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Diurnal is commonly either astronomical (with special reference to the movements of the heavenly bodies) or poetic in its use

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the diurnal revolution of the earth

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rolled round in earth's diurnal course— Wordsworthy

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Diurnal also implies opposition to nocturnal

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the diurnal and nocturnal offices of the monks

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hunting dogs are mainly diurnal animals— Stevenson-Hamilton

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Quotidian adds to daily the implication of recurrence each day

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a quotidian fever

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It often suggests also a commonplace, routine, or everyday character or quality

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that quality of strangeness which puts a new light on all quotidian occupations— Bennett

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he has found in quotidian interests and affections and appetites so complete an escape from the labors and the struggles of the creative spirit— Brooks

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as quotidian as catching the 8:52 from Surbiton to go to business on a Monday morning— Huxley

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Circadian is a chiefly technical term of recent coinage that differs from daily or quotidian in implying only approximate equation with the twenty-four hour day

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circadian rhythms in insect behavior

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Contrasted words: *nightly, nocturnal: periodic, alternate, recurrent, *intermittent: occasional, *infrequent, sporadic