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time.

The inevitable progression into the future with the passing of present and past events.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/taɪm/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[tʰaɪ̯m]General-American, Received-Pronunciation/təɪm//taɪm/Canada
  1. The inevitable progression into the future with the passing of present and past events.

    uncountable
    Time stops for nobody. the ebb and flow of time
  2. The inevitable progression into the future with the passing of present and past events. The feeling of the passage of events and their relative duration, as experienced by an individual.

    uncountable
    Time flies when you're having fun.
  3. The inevitable progression into the future with the passing of present and past events. A dimension of spacetime with the opposite metric signature to space dimensions; the fourth dimension.

    uncountable · usually
    Both science-fiction writers and physicists have written about travel through time.
  4. The inevitable progression into the future with the passing of present and past events. Change associated with the second law of thermodynamics; the physical and psychological result of increasing entropy.

    uncountable
    Time slows down when you approach the speed of light.
  5. The inevitable progression into the future with the passing of present and past events. The property of a system which allows it to have more than one distinct configuration.

    uncountable
    An essential definition of time should entail neither speed nor direction, just change.
  6. A duration of time. A quantity of availability of duration.

    uncountable
    More time is needed to complete the project.
    You had plenty of time, but you waited until the last minute.
  7. A duration of time. A measurement of a quantity of time; a numerical or general indication of a length of progression.

    countable
    a long time
    Record the individual times for the processes in each batch.
  8. A duration of time. The serving of a prison sentence.

    slang · uncountable
    The judge leniently granted a sentence with no hard time.
    He is not living at home because he is doing time.
  9. A duration of time. An experience.

    countable
    We had a wonderful time at the party.
  10. A duration of time. An era; (articulated, sometimes in the plural) the current era, the current state of affairs.

    countable
    Roman times
    the time of the dinosaurs
  11. A duration of time. A person's youth or young adulthood, as opposed to the present day.

    uncountable
    In my time, we respected our elders.
  12. A duration of time. Time out; temporary, limited suspension of play.

    countable · figuratively · singular · uncountable
  13. An instant of time. The duration of time of a given day that has passed; the moment, as indicated by a clock or similar device.

    uncountable
    Excuse me, have you got the time?
    What time is it, do you guess? Ten o’clock?
  14. An instant of time. A particular moment or hour; the appropriate moment or hour for something (especially with prepositional phrase or imperfect subjunctive).

    countable
    it’s time for (you to go to) bed; it’s time to sleep; we must wait for the right time; it's time we were going
  15. An instant of time. A numerical indication of a particular moment.

    countable
    At what times do the trains arrive?
    These times were erroneously converted between zones
  16. An instant of time. An instance or occurrence.

    countable
    one more time
    When was the last time we went out? I don’t remember.
  17. An instant of time. Closing time.

    UK · countable · uncountable
    Last call: it's almost time.
  18. An instant of time. The hour of childbirth.

    countable · uncountable
  19. An instant of time. The end of someone’s life, conceived by the speaker as having been predestined.

    countable · uncountable
    It was his time.
  20. The measurement under some system of region of day or moment.

    countable
    Let's synchronize our watches so we're not on different time.
  21. A ratio of comparison (see also usage notes and prepositional sense at 'times').

    countable
    Your car runs three times faster than mine.
    That is four times as heavy as this.
  22. The measured duration of sounds.

    uncountable
    dance time; march time
  23. The measured duration of sounds. Tempo; a measured rate of movement.

    uncountable
    The musician keeps good time.
  24. The measured duration of sounds. Rhythmical division, meter.

    uncountable
    common or triple time; time signature
  25. The measured duration of sounds. A straight rhythmic pattern, free from fills, breaks and other embellishments.

    uncountable
    After the introduction, the drummer is to play time.
  26. Synonym of tense

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
    the time of a verb
  27. Clipping of a long time.

    Multicultural-London-English · abbreviation · alt-of · clipping · countable · slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English tyme, time, from Old English tīma (“time, period, space of time, season, lifetime, fixed time, favorable time, opportunity”), from Proto-West Germanic *tīmō, from Proto-Germanic *tīmô (“time”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂imō, from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂y- (“to divide”). Related to tide. Not related to Latin tempus. Cognates * Scots tym, tyme (“time”) * Alemannic German Zimen, Zīmmän (“time, time of the year, opportune time, opportunity”) * Danish time (“hour, lesson”) * Elfdalian taime (“hour”) * Faroese tími (“hour, lesson, time”) * Icelandic tími (“time, season”) * Norwegian time (“lesson, hour”) * Swedish timma, timme (“hour”).

verb/taɪm/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[tʰaɪ̯m]General-American, Received-Pronunciation/təɪm//taɪm/Canada
  1. To measure or record the time, duration, or rate of something.

    transitive
    I used a stopwatch to time myself running around the block.
  2. To choose when something commences or its duration.

    transitive
    The President timed his speech badly, coinciding with the Super Bowl.
    The bomb was timed to explode at 9:20 p.m.
  3. To keep or beat time; to proceed or move in time.

    obsolete
  4. To pass time; to delay.

    obsolete
  5. To regulate as to time; to accompany, or agree with, in time of movement.

  6. To measure, as in music or harmony.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English tyme, time, from Old English tīma (“time, period, space of time, season, lifetime, fixed time, favorable time, opportunity”), from Proto-West Germanic *tīmō, from Proto-Germanic *tīmô (“time”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂imō, from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂y- (“to divide”). Related to tide. Not related to Latin tempus. Cognates * Scots tym, tyme (“time”) * Alemannic German Zimen, Zīmmän (“time, time of the year, opportune time, opportunity”) * Danish time (“hour, lesson”) * Elfdalian taime (“hour”) * Faroese tími (“hour, lesson, time”) * Icelandic tími (“time, season”) * Norwegian time (“lesson, hour”) * Swedish timma, timme (“hour”).

intj/taɪm/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[tʰaɪ̯m]General-American, Received-Pronunciation/təɪm//taɪm/Canada
  1. Reminder by the umpire for the players to continue playing after their pause.

  2. The umpire's call in prizefights, etc.

  3. A call by a bartender to warn patrons that the establishment is closing and no more drinks will be served.

    Time gentlemen please!
Where this word comes from

From Middle English tyme, time, from Old English tīma (“time, period, space of time, season, lifetime, fixed time, favorable time, opportunity”), from Proto-West Germanic *tīmō, from Proto-Germanic *tīmô (“time”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂imō, from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂y- (“to divide”). Related to tide. Not related to Latin tempus. Cognates * Scots tym, tyme (“time”) * Alemannic German Zimen, Zīmmän (“time, time of the year, opportune time, opportunity”) * Danish time (“hour, lesson”) * Elfdalian taime (“hour”) * Faroese tími (“hour, lesson, time”) * Icelandic tími (“time, season”) * Norwegian time (“lesson, hour”) * Swedish timma, timme (“hour”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.