weekday
Americannoun
-
weekdays
plural
adjective
noun
Usage
What is a weekday? A weekday is any day that is not a weekend day. Since the weekend is considered to consist of Saturday and Sunday, the weekdays are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. (Even though Friday evening is sometimes considered the start of the weekend, Friday is still considered a weekday.)The evenings of weekdays are called weeknights. The word week most commonly refers to any period of seven consecutive days, or to the seven-day period on the calendar that begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday. However, in weekday and weeknight, it refers to the five-day period that’s often considered the workweek or school week. The standard workweek is from Monday through Friday, though working schedules vary widely. Days of the workweek can be called workdays. Weekdays are usually (but not always) workdays or school days. For this reason, terms like weekday and weeknight are typically used—instead of just saying day or night—to distinguish them from the days and nights on the weekend. The word weekdays can be used as an adverb meaning on weekdays—Monday through Friday. The word weekends can be used as an adverb in the same way, as in We’re open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but we’re closed weekends. Example: I don’t usually like to be out so late on a weekday, but I couldn’t miss this!
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of weekday
before 900; Middle English; Old English wicdæg. See week, day
Explanation
If it's not Saturday or Sunday, today is a weekday. Better get to bed early tonight — tomorrow's another weekday and you've got school! You can categorize every day of the week as either a weekday or the weekend. Monday through Friday are weekdays, which for most people means work or school. The word weekday can also be used as an adjective, to describe something that happens on one of these days, like your weekday routine or the weekday traffic on your commute. This word stems from the Old English wicudæge, and it originally meant "any day but Sunday."
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.
See Examples For:
Philip surveyed three streets on behalf of the England Data Unit, all within a few minutes' walk of Covent Garden, on a weekday evening.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
“You see a lot of people consuming the minimum, what they need to get by through the week,” said owner Carina Murillo, 31, as she checked out customers on a recent weekday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
On weekday mornings, they’re packed with ordinary people burning offerings and whispering prayers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
It has also pledged to raise the German flag every weekday at public schools and better preserve war memorials to German soldiers.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
To me it always felt like home and weekday evenings.
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
Notifications would be silenced during school hours, defined as 8:00 am to 3:00 pm on weekdays between August 15 and June 15.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
The system encourages him to sleep in on Mondays and travel less on weekdays, and helps him organize his calendar and pick out gifts for friends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Videos for their vast social media following are filmed at weekends, so that weekdays are largely kept free for school, Kavuma says.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Big Sur business owners advise visitors to travel on weekdays for less traffic and the best hotel rates, and to get on the road as early as possible.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
Sometimes on the weekends there would be what might be called excessive traffic, but I confined my driving to the weekdays and it did not get thick until I was close to Southern California.
From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
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.
