# hour

Pronunciation: US say "OW-ur" /aʊɚ/; UK say "OW-uh" /aʊə/

## Noun

1. A unit of time equal to sixty minutes, or one twenty-fourth of a day.
   - Simple: A length of time equal to sixty minutes.
   - _The meeting ran nearly an hour past its scheduled end._
   - _Each shift lasts eight hours, with a short break in between._
2. An amount of working time required by an employer.
   - Simple: The time someone must spend working at a job.
   - _Her new job has better hours and pays more._
   - _The new contract cut their weekly hours significantly._
3. A particular moment or period of time, especially a significant or decisive one.
   - Simple: A certain time or moment, often an important one.
   - _The country faced its gravest hour during the war._
   - _He arrived at the appointed hour, not a minute late._
4. A distance equal to how far one can travel in sixty minutes.
   - Simple: How far you 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._
5. The present time of day. *(literary)*
   - Simple: What time it is at a given moment.
   - _No one knew the hour, for every clock in the house had stopped._
   - _The hour was late when the travelers reached the gate._
7. Spoken after a four-digit clock reading in military and official timekeeping to state the time of day.
   - Simple: A word said after a four-digit time to give the time the military way.
   - _The convoy departs at thirteen hundred hours._
   - _Sentries change at zero four hundred hours each morning._
8. A fixed time of prayer in the Christian tradition, the canonical service prescribed for it, or a book containing such services.
   - Simple: A set time of day for prayer in some churches, or the service or book used then.
   - _The community observed each hour with chanted psalms throughout the day._
   - _An illuminated book of hours from the period sold at auction last spring._
6. In the plural, the regular part of each day during which a store, an office or a service is open to the public.
   - Simple: The set times each day when a store, office or service is open.
   - _The pharmacy extended its weekend hours during flu season._
   - _Customer support is available by phone only during business hours._

## 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."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/hour (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).