hour
Pluralhours
- 1A unit of time equal to sixty minutes, or one twenty-fourth of a day.
The meeting ran nearly an hour past its scheduled end.
Each shift lasts eight hours, with a short break in between.
UsageThe h is silent, so an hour (not
incorrect: a hour). Common phrases: for hours, half an hour, in an hour. - 2An amount of working time required by an employer.
Her new job has better hours and pays more.
The new contract cut their weekly hours significantly.
UsageCommon verbs: work long hours, get more hours, cut someone's hours.
Note
Asking for more hours means asking for more work and more pay, not more free time.
- 3A particular moment or period of time, especially a significant or decisive one.
The country faced its gravest hour during the war.
He arrived at the appointed hour, not a minute late.
UsageCommon in the appointed hour, finest hour and darkest hour.
Note
Here the word recalls an ancient meaning. Greek hōra was any time or period, whether of the year, the month or the day, and the root behind it meant "year, season," so hour and year are distant cousins. That older breadth survives in Poe's "childhood's hour" and in Zane Grey's "a good hour to show you": a period of life or a fitting time, not a measured sixty minutes.
- 4A distance equal to how far one can travel in sixty minutes.
By truck, the ranch is barely an hour from town.
The cabin sits a good two hours from the nearest highway.
UsageUsually an hour away or two hours from a place.
Note
A way of measuring distance by the time it takes to cover it: a place is an hour away, or two hours from the highway. The figure quietly assumes a way of traveling. The same hour can therefore mean very different distances on foot and by truck.
- 5The present time of day.
No one knew the hour, for every clock in the house had stopped.
The hour was late when the travelers reached the gate.
UsageEveryday speech asks What time is it?; What hour is it? sounds bookish.
Similartime
Note
The natural home for this use is a line like "the hour grows late," where hour stands for the time of day itself. Unlike the "fitting moment" meaning, it points to the clock, not to an occasion.
- 6In the plural, the regular part of each day during which a store, an office or a service is open to the public.
The pharmacy extended its weekend hours during flu season.
Customer support is available by phone only during business hours.
Note
This meaning lives only in the plural, and it usually follows the place it belongs to or a word that narrows it: the library's hours, weekend hours, business hours. Put the same plural on a person and it shifts: her hours are the time she works, the employer's claim on time, not the times a door stands open to the public.
Less common meanings
- 7Spoken after a four-digit clock reading in military and official timekeeping to state the time of day.
The convoy departs at thirteen hundred hours.
Sentries change at zero four hundred hours each morning.
UsageFollows a four-digit time: 1300 hours, said thirteen hundred hours.
Note
Military and official timekeeping writes the clock as four digits and may follow them with hours, always in the plural, even at one o'clock. In T. C. G. James's The Battle of Britain (2000), "By 1300 hours the position was fairly clear." Aloud, 1300 hours is read as thirteen hundred hours. A leading zero is spoken as well, as in zero four hundred hours.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts
- Four-digit military times may be followed by hours, but this is not universal; the U.S. Navy omits the word. neptuneschools.org
- When hours follows a clock reading, it remains plural at one o'clock. clearfieldcountypa.gov
- T. C. G. James wrote The Battle of Britain. api.pageplace.de
- The Battle of Britain was first published in 2000. api.pageplace.de
- The quoted sentence is attributed to James's The Battle of Britain. en.wiktionary.org
- 1300 hours is read as thirteen hundred hours. clearfieldcountypa.gov
- The leading zero is spoken in zero four hundred hours. nature.fontanaca.gov
- 8A fixed time of prayer in the Christian tradition, the canonical service prescribed for it, or a book containing such services.
The community observed each hour with chanted psalms throughout the day.
An illuminated book of hours from the period sold at auction last spring.
Similaroffice
Note
In Christian practice the plural names the whole daily cycle of prayer, the canonical hours. It also names the service said at each of those times and the book that gathers them. A book of hours is that last meaning: a devotional volume collecting the offices, made above all for lay people's private prayer.
Practice
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Origin
This word came through Middle English houre and Old French houre from Latin hōra ("hour"), which in turn came from Ancient Greek hṓra, meaning any time or period, of the year, month, or day. It traces back to a Proto-Indo-European root for "year, season" and is akin to Old English ġēar ("year"), making it a doublet of "year."
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts
- English hour descends through Middle English houre. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French houre derives from Latin hōra, meaning hour. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin hōra was borrowed from Ancient Greek hṓra. en.wiktionary.org
- Ancient Greek hṓra could mean any time or period within a year, month, or day. en.wiktionary.org
- The word ultimately derives from a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form meaning year or season. en.wiktionary.org
- Hour is related to Old English ġēar, meaning year. en.wiktionary.org
- Hour and year are etymological doublets. en.wiktionary.org