hour
//aʊə//
Forms
- Plural
- hours
Definitions
1.A unit of time of one twenty-fourth of a day (sixty minutes).
- There's a bus at 20 past the hour.
- We still have a couple hours left to do in the yard.
- I spent an hour at lunch.
2.A season, moment, or time.
- Don't come home ever again at this unearthly hour.
- Now will be a good hour to show you Milly Erne's grave.
- From childhood's hour I have not been / As others were; I have not seen / As others saw; I could not bring / My passions from a common spring.
3.The time.
- The hour grows late and I must go home.
4.Used after a two-digit hour and a two-digit minute to indicate time.
- By 1300 hours the position was fairly clear.
Frequency
Overall
Very common· #308
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Common
- General reading & writing
- Very common
- Academic
- Uncommon
- Literature
- Uncommon
Etymology
From Middle English houre, hour, oure, from Old French houre, from Latin hōra (“hour”), from Ancient Greek ὥρα (hṓra, “any time or period, whether of the year, month, or day”), from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year, season”). Akin to Old English ġēar (“year”). Doublet of hora and year. Compare horary.