times

Formstimeses, timesing, timesed

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of time.

   The old bridge has been repaired many times over the decades.

   He read the letter four times before deciding how to reply.

   Note

   The plural comes from the countable uses of time. Time as an unbroken flow, or as a dimension of spacetime, is uncountable and does not normally take it. In ten times more difficult, the plural counts multiples, close in spirit to the "multiplied by" preposition. The same spelling is also a verb form and a preposition, so the surrounding sentence decides which word is meant.

2. 2
   preposition

   Multiplied by; placed between two numbers to show that one is multiplied by the other.

   Five times eight is forty.

   If you take seven times nine, you get sixty-three.

   Note

   In arithmetic it links two numbers like a preposition, and it leaves a small agreement question open. Both four times five is twenty and four times five are twenty are in use, so neither should be marked wrong. With one times one is one, the singular verb is the natural choice. The same comparative idea shows up in phrases like ten times more.

3. 3
   nounplural

   The prevailing conditions or circumstances that mark a particular period.

   The novel captures the desperate times of the Great Depression.

   Changing times forced the old family business to adapt or close.

   Similardays, circumstances

   Note

   Only the plural carries this meaning of an era and its conditions. It pairs readily with a word that fixes the period, as in modern times, colonial times and Eastern Han times. In that frame it works almost like a dating label: walls dating back to colonial times. Agreement follows the plural, so write times are changing, never times is.

4. 4
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of time.

   The referee times the match from the sideline.

   A skilled comedian times each joke for the biggest laugh.

   Note

   The present form after he, she, it or a singular noun. It covers both main uses of the verb. One is measuring, as in the referee times the match. The other is choosing the moment, as in a comedian times a joke. Keep it separate from the informal "multiply" verb, which builds its own present form on a different base.

5. 5
   verbcolloquialtransitive

   To multiply one quantity by another.

   If you times the number of guests by two, you'll have enough plates.

   My son kept timesing the width by itself instead of by the length, so every area came out wrong.

   Similarmultiply

   Oppositedivide

   Note

   Classroom arithmetic turned the preposition into a verb. A child who says four times five can go on to say timesing both numbers by 10. Like multiply, it takes by. It inflects on the whole word: timeses, timesing, timesed. That keeps it distinct from the clock verb's times and timed. It belongs to spoken explanation, so use multiply in formal mathematical writing.

6. 6
   nounplural

   The events, experiences, and circumstances that make up a person's life.

   Her memoir recounts the life and times of a frontier doctor.

   Historians have pieced together the life and times of forgotten inventors.

   Note

   A plural-only use that lives mostly in one title formula: The Life and Times of… followed by a name. The pairing is deliberate. Life covers the individual story, and times widens it toward the circumstances of an era, so a book with this title promises a person set against their period, not a bare chronology.

Showing meanings only. Show all 6