: a unit of one hour's work by one person that is used especially as a basis for cost accounting and wages

Examples of man-hour in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
On the West Coast, longshoremen accrue additional compensation based on man-hour assessments. Lori Ann Larocco, CNBC, 4 Sep. 2024 Instead, work will simply become easier and more streamlined, saving man-hours while making staff more efficient and sustainable. Bj Schaknowski, Fortune, 6 May 2024 So many man-hours went into this incredible artistic craftsmanship of building this set, building this world. Christian Holub, EW.com, 22 Mar. 2024 These games included highly detailed scenarios, limited rules built by and adjudicated by a staff of experts (some sources claim that each scenario involved more than 1,000 man-hours to create) and played by senior decision-makers from across the federal government. Jacquelyn Schneider, Foreign Affairs, 26 Dec. 2023 Millions of dollars and hundreds of Sisyphean man-hours were required to preserve the illusion of calm, untouched beauty in harmony with nature. Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023 That means taxpayers could be on the hook for billions of dollars in wages for millions of man-hours not worked. Elizabeth Robinson, NBC News, 29 Sep. 2023 The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative spent eight months and thousands of man-hours investigating and meticulously documenting China’s practices in a 200-page report. Robert E. Lighthizer, Foreign Affairs, 20 July 2020 In a press briefing Friday, Police Chief Sean McKinney estimated that authorities had used 1,600 man-hours in the search for Gillespie. Brenton Blanchet, Peoplemag, 27 May 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1912, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of man-hour was in 1912

Dictionary Entries Near man-hour

Cite this Entry

“Man-hour.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/man-hour. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

man-hour

noun
ˈman-ˈau̇(-ə)r
: a unit of one hour's work by one worker used especially as a basis for wages and in accounting
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!