timer

American  

[tahy-mer] / ˈtaɪ mər /

noun

• timers
  plural

1. a person or thing that times.

2. a person who measures or records time.

3. a device for indicating or measuring elapsed time, as a stopwatch.

4. a device for controlling machinery, appliances, or the like, in a specified way at a predetermined time.

   Please put the roast in the oven and set the timer to cook it for two hours.

5. (in an internal-combustion engine) a set of points actuated by a cam, which causes the spark for igniting the charge at the instant required.

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timer British  

/ ˈtaɪmə /

noun

1. a device for measuring, recording, or indicating time

2. a switch or regulator that causes a mechanism to operate at a specific time or at predetermined intervals

3. a person or thing that times

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• timers
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of timer

First recorded in 1490–1500; time + -er ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

timer timers

Over the 50 trading days prior to market tops, in contrast, the average short-term market timer increases his recommended exposure level by less than four percentage points.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026

Kelly set a countdown timer on his work computer until his 55th birthday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

"A non-functional mouse is not just about pausing the timer," he said.

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

The timer could include a message that says, “You’ve got five minutes to complete this sale,” or “Enter your credit card now or the price will go up,” Moore said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026

Set a timer on a cell phone, watch, or oven; punch in three minutes; and see what you can do.

From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Its long-maligned assistant was already stale the day it arrived, surpassed by agents such as Instinct and Muse that can complete multistep tasks for consumers, while Siri still sets kitchen timers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

I use the Amazon Echo Show device daily, sometimes to play music, but mostly to set timers and turn off all the lights before bedtime.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

Bambi, a woman in her late 60s, began consuming conspiratorial media so religiously that she set timers to make sure she didn’t miss podcasts.

From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026

The cooking part was over, the timers went off.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

Sick about Sammy, I queried from bar to bar among old- timers for West Indian Archie.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

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Related Words

• timepiece
• wristwatch

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