daytime
Americannoun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of daytime
Explanation
When the sun is lighting up the sky outside, it's daytime. Most adults are at work during the daytime and come home at nighttime. While daytime is defined as "after sunrise and before sunset," it describes this time of day even on dark, gray, days, or in parts of the world that get limited sunlight during the winter. A more accurate way to think of daytime is the hours after you wake up in the morning and before you start to think about going to bed at night. When it's daytime where you are, it's nighttime on the opposite hemisphere of the Earth.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There was an “extreme heat warning” on Friday, with the daytime temperature reaching 109 degrees.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
Many areas will see sunny spells across Saturday and Sunday with daytime temperatures climbing again, perhaps to above the August average in parts of the south of England.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Eight colorful prints by modern master Henri Matisse that were stolen last year from a Brazilian library during an armed daytime heist have been recovered and safely returned, São Paulo police said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
The only real crowds are to be found in the daytime -- at banks, cheap bakeries and outside the Spanish consulate, where hundreds clutch papers and wait to get off the island.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
While the dialogue occasionally falters, you have to admire daytime dramas for their remarkable attention to plot.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
