international date line

noun

: an arbitrary line approximately along the 180th meridian designated as the place where each calendar day begins

Examples of international date line in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In Australia, near the edge of the international date line, matches are things to be watched at 3:15 A.M. or 4:45 A.M. —Naaman Zhou, The New Yorker, 22 Nov. 2022

Only in Hawaii and Midway did the vagaries of the international date line place the event on December 7. —Daniel Immerwahr, The Atlantic, 4 Apr. 2022

The position of the international date line meant hitting a ball into right field was hitting it into the next day. —Washington Post, 30 Apr. 2022

Several hours before the attack on Pearl Harbor, which lay across the international date line, the Japanese landed on the beaches of northeastern Malaya and began a rapid advance toward Singapore. —Richard Collett, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Mar. 2022

The volcano is located about 40 miles north of Tonga’s main island of Tongatapu near the international date line. —Washington Post, 15 Jan. 2022

Some maps blow continents way out of proportion; others misleadingly split the world in half at the international date line and put Hawaii on one side and Japan on the other, as if the two islands aren't only half an ocean apart. —Rasha Aridi, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Jan. 2022

Because of where the international date line sits, countries in Asia and the Pacific region are among the first to usher in each new year. —Nick Perry, chicagotribune.com, 31 Dec. 2021

This was the period when the international date line was established and when time zones were instituted. —Joe Pinsker, The Atlantic, 16 Nov. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1875, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for international date line

• aconitine
• adamantine
• anopheline
• bromocriptine
• chlorhexidine
• clomipramine
• creatinine
• desipramine
• guanethidine
• heterodyne
• imipramine
• meperidine

Kids Definition

international date line

noun

: an imaginary line along the 180th meridian named as the place where each calendar day begins