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

That's the first Sunday in November, and marks the return to standard time. —Jenna Prestininzi, Detroit Free Press, 2 Nov. 2024

However, Hawaii and Arizona both opted to keep standard time all year round. —Brittany Anas, Forbes, 30 Oct. 2024

Rubio released a statement in support of making daylight saving time permanent just days ahead of the twice-annual switch from daylight saving time to standard time, which happens Sunday. —Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY, 29 Oct. 2024

Two states — Arizona and Hawaii — don’t change and stay on standard time. —Associated Press, TIME, 27 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1809, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

standard time

noun

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