Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
hour
8 dictionary results for: Hour
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
hour       [ouuhr, ou-er] Pronunciation Key
–noun
1.a period of time equal to one twenty-fourth of a mean solar or civil day and equivalent to 60 minutes: He slept for an hour.
2.any specific one of these 24 periods, usually reckoned in two series of 12, one series from midnight to noon and the second from noon to midnight, but sometimes reckoned in one series of 24, from midnight to midnight: He slept for the hour between 2 and 3 a.m. The hour for the bombardment was between 1300 and 1400.
3.any specific time of day; the time indicated by a timepiece: What is the hour?
4.a short or limited period of time: He savored his hour of glory.
5.a particular or appointed time: What was the hour of death? At what hour do you open?
6.a customary or usual time: When is your dinner hour?
7.the present time: the man of the hour.
8.hours,
a.time spent in an office, factory, or the like, or for work, study, etc.: The doctor's hours were from 10 to 4. What an employee does after hours is his or her own business.
b.customary time of going to bed and getting up: to keep late hours.
c.(in the Christian church) the seven stated times of the day for prayer and devotion.
d.the offices or services prescribed for these times.
e.a book containing them.
9.distance normally covered in an hour's traveling: We live about an hour from the city.
10.Astronomy. a unit of measure of right ascension representing 15°, or the twenty-fourth part of a great circle.
11.a single period, as of class instruction or therapeutic consultation, usually lasting from 40 to 55 minutes. Compare clock-hour.
12.Education. Also called credit hour. one unit of academic credit, usually representing attendance at one scheduled period of instruction per week throughout a semester, quarter, or term.
13.the Hours, Classical Mythology. the Horae.
–adjective
14.of, pertaining to, or noting an hour.
—Idiom
15.one's hour,
a.Also, one's last hour. the instant of death: The sick man knew that his hour had come.
b.any crucial moment.
[Origin: 1175–1225; ME (h)oure < AF; OF (h)ore < L hōra < Gk hrā time, season]

—Related forms
hourless, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
hour       (our)  Pronunciation Key 
n.   Abbr. hr.
  1. One of the 24 equal parts of a day.
    1. One of the points on a timepiece marking off 12 or 24 successive intervals of 60 minutes, from midnight to noon and noon to midnight or from midnight to midnight.
    2. The time of day indicated by a 12-hour clock.
    3. hours The time of day determined on a 24-hour basis: 1730 hours is 5:30 P.M.
    4. A customary or fixed time: the dinner hour.
    5. hours A set period of time for a specified activity: banking hours.
    6. A particular time: their hour of need.
    7. A significant time: Her hour had come.
    8. The present time: the man of the hour.
    9. The work that can be accomplished in an hour.
    10. The distance that can be traveled in an hour.
    11. A single session of a school day or class.
    12. A credit hour.
  3. A unit of measure of longitude or right ascension, equal to 15° or 1/24 of a great circle.
    1. A customary or fixed time: the dinner hour.
    2. hours A set period of time for a specified activity: banking hours.
    3. A particular time: their hour of need.
    4. A significant time: Her hour had come.
    5. The present time: the man of the hour.
    6. The work that can be accomplished in an hour.
    7. The distance that can be traveled in an hour.
    8. A single session of a school day or class.
    9. A credit hour.
    1. A particular time: their hour of need.
    2. A significant time: Her hour had come.
    3. The present time: the man of the hour.
    4. The work that can be accomplished in an hour.
    5. The distance that can be traveled in an hour.
    6. A single session of a school day or class.
    7. A credit hour.
    1. The work that can be accomplished in an hour.
    2. The distance that can be traveled in an hour.
    3. A single session of a school day or class.
    4. A credit hour.
    1. A single session of a school day or class.
    2. A credit hour.
  8. hours Ecclesiastical The canonical hours.


[Middle English, from Old French houre, from Latin hōra, from Greek hōrā, season, time; see yēr- in Indo-European roots.]

(Download Now or Buy the Book)
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT
Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
hour 
c.1250, from O.Fr. hore "one-twelfth of a day" (sunrise to sunset), from L. hora "hour, time, season," from Gk. hora "any limited time," used of day, hour, season, year; cognate O.E. gear "year" (see year). Greeks borrowed the notion of dividing the day into hours from the Babylonians, but the Babylonian hour was one-twelfth of the whole day and thus twice as long as a modern hour. The Greeks divided only the period of light into 12 parts, and the Romans adopted the system from them. Night was not similarly divided till much later, and thus the period of time covered by an hour varied according to the season. In 16c. distinction sometimes was made between temporary (unequal) hours and sidereal (equal) ones. The h- has persisted in this word despite not being pronounced since Roman times. Replaced O.E. tid, lit. "time," and stund "period of time." Hourglass is from 1515.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
hour

noun
1. a period of time equal to 1/24th of a day; "the job will take more than an hour" 
2. clock time; "the hour is getting late" 
3. a special and memorable period; "it was their finest hour" 
4. distance measured by the time taken to cover it; "we live an hour from the airport"; "its just 10 minutes away" 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT
American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms - Cite This Source - Share This

hour

see after hours; all hours; by the day (hour); eleventh hour; happy hour; keep late hours; on the hour; small hours.


The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT
The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
hour       (our)  Pronunciation Key 
  1. A unit of time equal to one of the 24 equal parts of a day; 60 minutes. ◇ A sidereal hour is 1/24 of a sidereal day, and a mean solar hour is 1/24 of a mean solar day. See more at sidereal time, solar time.
  2. A unit of measure of longitude or right ascension, equal to 15° or 1/24 of a great circle.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Hour

Hour\, n. [OE. hour, our, hore, ure, OF. hore, ore, ure, F. heure, L. hora, fr. Gr. ?, orig., a definite space of time, fixed by natural laws; hence, a season, the time of the day, an hour. See Year, and cf. Horologe, Horoscope.]

1. The twenty-fourth part of a day; sixty minutes.

2. The time of the day, as expressed in hours and minutes, and indicated by a timepiece; as, what is the hour? At what hour shall we meet?

3. Fixed or appointed time; conjuncture; a particular time or occasion; as, the hour of greatest peril; the man for the hour.

Woman, . . . mine hour is not yet come. --John ii. 4.

This is your hour, and the power of darkness. --Luke xxii. 53.

4. pl. (R. C. Ch.) Certain prayers to be repeated at stated times of the day, as matins and vespers.

5. A measure of distance traveled.

Vilvoorden, three hours from Brussels. --J. P. Peters.

After hours, after the time appointed for one's regular labor.

Canonical hours. See under Canonical.

Hour angle (Astron.), the angle between the hour circle passing through a given body, and the meridian of a place.

Hour circle. (Astron.) (a) Any circle of the sphere passing through the two poles of the equator; esp., one of the circles drawn on an artificial globe through the poles, and dividing the equator into spaces of 15[deg], or one hour, each. (b) A circle upon an equatorial telescope lying parallel to the plane of the earth's equator, and graduated in hours and subdivisions of hours of right ascension. (c) A small brass circle attached to the north pole of an artificial globe, and divided into twenty-four parts or hours. It is used to mark differences of time in working problems on the globe.

Hour hand, the hand or index which shows the hour on a timepiece.

Hour line. (a) (Astron.) A line indicating the hour. (b) (Dialing) A line on which the shadow falls at a given hour; the intersection of an hour circle which the face of the dial.

Hour plate, the plate of a timepiece on which the hours are marked; the dial. --Locke.

Sidereal hour, the twenty-fourth part of a sidereal day.

Solar hour, the twenty-fourth part of a solar day.

The small hours, the early hours of the morning, as one o'clock, two o'clock, etc.

To keep good hours, to be regular in going to bed early.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Hour

First found in Dan. 3:6; 4:19, 33;5:5. It is the rendering of the Chaldee shaah, meaning a "moment," a "look." It is used in the New Testament frequently to denote some determinate season (Matt. 8:13; Luke 12:39). With the ancient Hebrews the divisions of the day were "morning, evening, and noon-day" (Ps. 55:17, etc.). The Greeks, following the Babylonians, divided the day into twelve hours. The Jews, during the Captivity, learned also from the Babylonians this method of dividing time. When Judea became subject to the Romans, the Jews adopted the Roman mode of reckoning time. The night was divided into four watches (Luke 12:38; Matt. 14:25; 13:25). Frequent allusion is also made to hours (Matt. 25:13; 26:40, etc.). (See DAY.) An hour was the twelfth part of the day, reckoning from sunrise to sunset, and consequently it perpetually varied in length.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT
Share This:Share This: digg.comShare This: ma.gnolia.comShare This: www.stumbleupon.comShare This: del.icio.usShare This: FacebookShare This: favorites.live.comShare This: www.technorati.comShare This: furl.netShare This: myweb2.search.yahoo.comShare This: www.google.com