standard time

noun

: the time of a region or country that is established by law or general usage as civil time (see civil sense 5)

… the advent of the railway system and its demand for accurate timetables created the need for standard time and GMT became the legal standard time of Britain in 1880.

—John Sallnow

specifically : the mean time of a meridian that is a multiple of 15 arbitrarily applied to a local area or to one of the 24 time zones and designated as a number of hours earlier or later than Greenwich Mean Time

At a little after nine Central Standard Time on the night of Monday, April 13, 1970 there was, high in the western sky, a tiny flare of light that in some respects resembled a star exploding far away in our galaxy.

—Henry S. F. Cooper, Jr.

Examples of standard time in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

By remaining on standard time, Arizona sees an earlier sunset (at least according to the clocks,) which offers quicker relief on hot summer days, The Arizona Republic explains. —Addy Bink, The Hill, 9 Mar. 2025

These areas instead operate on permanent standard time. —William Lambers, Newsweek, 9 Mar. 2025

Arizona and Hawaii, along with the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, observe permanent standard time, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. —Evan Moore, Charlotte Observer, 28 Feb. 2025

Currently, only Hawaii and most of Arizona observe permanent standard time. —Sarah Linn and, Sacramento Bee, 8 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1809, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for standard time

• aforetime
• allozyme
• anytime
• christmastime
• cybercrime
• dinnertime
• guggenheim
• isozyme
• lysozyme
• maritime
• mesenchyme
• overtime

Kids Definition

standard time

noun

: the time established by law or by general usage over a region or country