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

see also:

morning, noon, and night

Synonyms of noon

• midday

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

About 50 Palo Pinto County residents were without power as of noon Thursday, according to the Oncor outage map. — Harriet Ramos, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 28 Aug. 2026

By noon, the science team’s role in operations is done, but my colleagues linger online to discuss the latest data in more detail. — Ashwin R. Vasavada, The Conversation, 27 Aug. 2026

Just before noon, officers from the Santa Clara Police Department responded to reports of a collision on Montague Expressway and Lafayette Street overpass, according to a news release from the Santa Clara Police Department. — Jason Green, Mercury News, 27 Aug. 2026

As of noon Thursday, 16 days after the storm, NIPSCO was down to 265 outages. — Doug Ross, Chicago Tribune, 27 Aug. 2026

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

Rhymes for noon

• boon
• brune
• coon
• croon
• dune
• goon
• hewn
• hoon
• june
• loon
• moon
• poon

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.