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hour

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Hour
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hour

  [ouuhr, ou-er]
Use hour in a Sentence
–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
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Hour
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hour   (our)   
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.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

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
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Bible Dictionary

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
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Idioms & Phrases

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. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Encyclopedia

hour

in timekeeping, 3,600 seconds, now defined in terms of radiation emitted from atoms of the element cesium under specified conditions. The hour was formerly defined as the 24th part of a mean solar day-i.e., of the average period of rotation of the Earth relative to the Sun. The hour of sidereal time, 124 of the Earth's rotation period relative to the stars, was about 10 seconds shorter than the hour of mean solar time.

Learn more about hour with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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