noon

noun

ˈnün 

1

: midday

specifically : 12 o'clock at midday

2

archaic : midnight

—used chiefly in the phrase noon of night

3

: the highest point

Synonyms

• high noon
• lunch time
• midday
• noonday
• noontide
• noontime

Examples of noon in a Sentence

The party will take place from noon to 4 p.m.

He showed up at precisely 12 noon.

Recent Examples on the Web

By noon, the building was in ruins with only the brick walls left standing. —Contributed Content, Twin Cities, 7 Feb. 2025

The Southern Section will release its soccer pairings at 10 a.m. on Saturday and its basketball pairings at noon... Pasadena’s boys’ soccer team finished the regular season at 17-0. —Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 7 Feb. 2025

That post had 230,000 likes and 13,000 comments as of Friday at noon. —Rosemary Feitelberg, WWD, 7 Feb. 2025

Nearly 8 percent of Morgan County had no power at noon Friday, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us. —Andy Rose, CNN, 7 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Old English nōn ninth hour from sunrise, from Latin nona, from feminine of nonus ninth; akin to Latin novem nine — more at nine

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing noon

• high noon
• morning, noon, and night
• pre-noon

Kids Definition

noon

noun

ˈnün 

: the middle of the day : 12 o'clock in the daytime

noon adjective

Etymology

Old English nōn "ninth hour from sunrise," derived from Latin nona, a feminine form of nonus "ninth," from novem "nine"

Word Origin

Noon has not always meant "12 o'clock in the daytime." In the ancient Roman way of keeping track of time, the hours of the day were counted from sunrise to sunset. The ninth hour of their day (about 3 p.m. nowadays) was called nona, Latin for "ninth." In the early period of English, the word was borrowed as nōn, also referring to the ninth hour after sunrise. By the 14th century, however, the word came to be used for midday, 12 o'clock, as we use it today.