a period of time equal to one twenty-fourth of a mean solar or civil day and equivalent to 60 minutes: He slept for an hour.
any specific one of these 24 periods, usually reckoned in two series of 12, one series from midnight to noon and the second from noon to midnight, but sometimes reckoned in one series of 24, from midnight to midnight: He slept for the hour between 2 and 3 a.m. The hour for the bombardment was between 1300 and 1400.
any specific time of day; the time indicated by a timepiece: What is the hour?
a short or limited period of time: He savored his hour of glory.
a particular or appointed time: What was the hour of death? At what hour do you open?
a customary or usual time: When is your dinner hour?
the present time: the man of the hour.
hours,
time spent in an office, factory, or the like, or for work, study, etc.: The doctor's hours were from 10 to 4. What an employee does after hours is his or her own business.
customary time of going to bed and getting up: to keep late hours.
(in the Christian church) the seven stated times of the day for prayer and devotion.
the offices or services prescribed for these times.
a book containing them.
distance normally covered in an hour's traveling: We live about an hour from the city.
Astronomy. a unit of measure of right ascension representing 15°, or the twenty-fourth part of a great circle.
a single period, as of class instruction or therapeutic consultation, usually lasting from 40 to 55 minutes.Compare clock-hour.
Education. Also called credit hour. one unit of academic credit, usually representing attendance at one scheduled period of instruction per week throughout a semester, quarter, or term.
the Hours,Classical Mythology. the Horae.
adjective
of, relating to, or noting an hour.
Idioms
one's hour,
Also one's last hour.the instant of death: The sick man knew that his hour had come.
any crucial moment.
Origin of hour
1175–1225;Middle English (h)oure < Anglo-French;Old French (h)ore < Latinhōra < Greekhṓrā time, season
Related formshour·less, adjectiveCan be confusedarehourour
mid-13c., from Old French hore "one-twelfth of a day" (sunrise to sunset), from Latin hora "hour, time, season," from Greek hora "any limited time," from PIE *yor-a-, from root *yer- "year, season" (see year). Greek hora was "a season; 'the season;'" in classical times, sometimes, "a part of the day," such as morning, evening, noon, night. The Greek astronomers apparently borrowed the notion of dividing the day into twelve parts (mentioned in Herodotus) from the Babylonians (night continued to be divided into four watches), but as the amount of daylight changed throughout the year, the hours were not fixed or of equal length. Equinoctal hours did not become established in Europe until the 4c., and as late as 16c. distinction sometimes was made between temporary (unequal) hours and sidereal (equal) ones. The h- has persisted in this word despite not being pronounced since Roman times. Replaced Old English tid, literally "time," and stund "period of time." As a measure of distance ("the distance that can be covered in an hour") it is recorded from 1785.
A unit of time equal to one of the 24 equal parts of a day; 60 minutes.♦ A sidereal hour is 124 of a sidereal day, and a mean solar hour is 124 of a mean solar day. See more at sidereal timesolar time.
A unit of measure of longitude or right ascension, equal to 15° or 124 of a great circle.
