time
pronunciation
How to pronounce time in British English:
UK [taɪm]
How to pronounce time in American English:
US [taɪm]
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- Noun:
- an instance or single occasion for some event
- an indefinite period (usually marked by specific attributes or activities)
- a period of time considered as a resource under your control and sufficient to accomplish something
- a suitable moment
- the continuum of experience in which events pass from the future through the present to the past
- the time as given by a clock
- the fourth coordinate that is required (along with three spatial dimensions) to specify a physical event
- a person's experience on a particular occasion
- rhythm as given by division into parts of equal time
- the period of time a prisoner is imprisoned
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- Verb:
- measure the time or duration of an event or action or the person who performs an action in a certain period of time
- assign a time for an activity or event
- set the speed, duration, or execution of
- regulate or set the time of
- adjust so that a force is applied an an action occurs at the desired time
Word Origin
- time
- time: [OE] Time originally denoted ‘delimited section of existence, period’. Its ultimate source is the Indo-European base *dī- ‘cut up, divide’. This passed into prehistoric Germanic as *tī- (source also of English tide), and addition of the suffix *-mon- produced *tīmon – whence English time and Swedish timme ‘hour’. The application of the word to the more generalized, abstract notion of ‘continuous duration’ dates from the 14th century.=> tide
- time (n.)
- Old English tima "limited space of time," from Proto-Germanic *timon- "time" (cognates: Old Norse timi "time, proper time," Swedish timme "an hour"), from PIE *di-mon-, suffixed form of root *da- "cut up, divide" (see tide (n.)). Abstract sense of "time as an indefinite continuous duration" is recorded from late 14c. Personified since at least 1509 as an aged bald man (but with a forelock) carrying a scythe and an hour-glass. In English, a single word encompasses time as "extent" and "point" (French temps/fois, German zeit/mal) as well as "hour" (as in "what time is it?" compare French heure, German Uhr). Extended senses such as "occasion," "the right time," "leisure," or times (v.) "multiplied by" developed in Old and Middle English, probably as a natural outgrowth of such phrases as "He commends her a hundred times to God" (Old French La comande a Deu cent foiz). to have a good time ( = a time of enjoyment) was common in Eng. from c 1520 to c 1688; it was app. retained in America, whence readopted in Britain in 19th c. [OED] Time of day (now mainly preserved in negation, i.e. what someone won't give you if he doesn't like you) was a popular 17c. salutation (as in "Good time of day vnto your Royall Grace," "Richard III," I.iii.18), hence to give (one) the time of day "greet socially" (1590s); earlier was give good day (mid-14c.). The times "the current age" is from 1590s. Behind the times "old-fashioned" is recorded from 1831. Times as the name of a newspaper dates from 1788. Time warp first attested 1954; time-traveling in the science fiction sense first recorded 1895 in H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine." Time capsule first recorded 1938, in reference to the one "deemed capable of resisting the effects of time for five thousand years preserving an account of universal achievements embedded in the grounds of the New York World's fair." Jones [archaeologist of A.D. 5139] potters about for a while in the region which we have come to regard as New York, finds countless ruins, but little of interest to the historian except a calcified direction sheet to something called a "Time Capsule." Jones finds the capsule but cannot open it, and decides, after considerable prying at the lid, that it is merely evidence of an archaic tribal ceremony called a "publicity gag" of which he has already found many examples. ["Princeton Alumni Weekly," April 14, 1939] To do time "serve a prison sentence" is from 1865. Time frame is attested by 1964; time-limit is from 1880. About time, ironically for "long past due time," is recorded from 1920.
- time (v.)
- Old English getimian "to happen, befall," from time (n.). Meaning "to appoint a time" (of an action, etc.) is attested from c. 1300; sense of "to measure or record the time of" (a race, event, etc.) is first attested 1660s. Related: Timed; timing.
Antonym
Example
- 1. It is not the first time .
- 2. Effective communication needs time management .
- 3. Perhaps they spent time in the yard .
- 4. It comes at an important time .
- 5. Pay attention to time of year .