afternoon

American  

[af-ter-noon, ahf-, af-ter-noon, ahf-, af-, ahf-] / ˌæf tərˈnun, ˌɑf-, ˈæf tərˈnun, ˈɑf-, ˌæf-, ˌɑf- /

noun

afternoons plural

1. the time from noon until evening.

2. the latter part.

   the afternoon of life.

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adjective

1. pertaining to the latter part of the day.

afternoon British  

/ ˌɑːftəˈnuːn /

noun

1. 1. the period of the day between noon and evening

   2. ( as modifier )

      afternoon tea

2. a middle or later part

   the afternoon of life

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• preafternoon
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• afternoons
  plural

Etymology

Origin of afternoon

Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at after, noon

Explanation

The afternoon is the time of day that starts mid-day and ends in the evening. If you have an afternoon appointment, it's probably some time between 12:00 and 5:00 p.m. It's pretty much agreed that the afternoon begins after noon, or 12:00 p.m., but when the afternoon ends and evening begins is a bit more vague. Still, if you ask a friend to meet you for coffee in the afternoon, she will know what you mean. You can even use the word afternoon as a casual greeting, short for "Good afternoon!" In Middle English, the word was aftermete, meaning "after the noon meal."

Example Sentences

Chalmers also presented programmes including Come Dancing, ITV's Good Afternoon, and BBC radio programmes including Woman's Hour and her own Radio 2 show.

From BBC • May 22, 2026

They included Good Afternoon and Afternoon Plus, the latter of which featured among other things the first TV appearances by Dame Mary Berry, who was then cookery editor of Home and Freezer Digest.

From BBC • May 22, 2026

Catch of the Week, Catch of the Year, Catch of the Century, or Merely the Catch of the Early Afternoon, Please Calm Down…I’ll leave the formal classification to the headline writers.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 9, 2025

An Afternoon with George Takei 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 23, 2025

Most recently he had turned down another outlandish idea, this from an earnest young Pittsburgh engineer who had attended his lecture to the Saturday Afternoon Club.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson