universal time

American  

noun

1. (often initial capital letters) Greenwich Time. UT

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universal time British  

noun

1.  UT.  (from 1928) name adopted internationally for Greenwich Mean Time (measured from Greenwich midnight), now split into several slightly different scales, one of which (UT1) is used by astronomers

2.  UTC.  Also called: universal coordinated time.  An internationally agreed system for civil timekeeping introduced in 1960 and redefined in 1972 as an atomic timescale. Available from broadcast signals, it has a second equal to the International Atomic Time (TAI) second, the difference between UTC and TAI being an integral number of seconds with leap seconds inserted when necessary to keep it within 0.9 seconds of UT1

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universal time Scientific  

1. The mean time for the meridian at Greenwich, England (0° longitude), which runs through the former site of the Royal Observatory. It is based on the sidereal period of Earth's rotation and is used as a basis for calculating standard clock time throughout most of the world.

2. Also called Greenwich Mean Time

3. Compare coordinated universal time

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universal time Cultural  

1. The measure of time obtained from the rotation of the Earth, also known as Greenwich mean time, after the Greenwich Observatory in England. The world's time standard today is Coordinated Universal Time, which is kept by atomic clocks. The two universal times are kept in synchronization by the occasional insertion of leap seconds into the year.

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Etymology

Origin of universal time

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

As the hour of 2 p.m. universal time* approached, Venus looked like a yellow half-moon against the sky background, and Regulus, greenish in hue, was approaching the rim of its disk.

From Time Magazine Archive

The pulses from space seemed so precisely timed that some scientists advocated their use as a universal time standard more accurate than even an atomic clock.

From Time Magazine Archive

Spring cleaning has become a universal time to declutter our lives, chucking everything we no longer need.

From Salon

“We’ve set up to make the best watch in the world. One that is precise. It’s synced with a universal time standard.”

From The Guardian

Although B.I.P.M. is responsible for universal time, the International Telecommunication Union, or I.T.U., is responsible for transmitting it.

From New York Times