quarter hour

noun

Definition of quarter hour

1 : fifteen minutes

2 : any of the quarter points of an hour

3 : a unit of academic credit representing an hour of class (such as lecture class) or three hours of laboratory work each week for an academic quarter

Examples of quarter hour in a Sentence

Trains depart every quarter hour. I waited a quarter hour in line.

Recent Examples on the Web What time units are used: quarter hours, half hours? — Consumers’ Checkbook, SFChronicle.com, 30 May 2020 The two spent two and a quarter hours outside the spacecraft collecting moon matter while third team member, command module pilot Michael Collins, flew the command module Columbia in lunar orbit. — Luann Gibbs, Cincinnati.com, 16 July 2019 The period of totality — when the moon is in the darkest part of Earth's shadow — will last a bit more than one and a quarter hours, according to EarthSky.org. — David Freeman /, NBC News, 24 Jan. 2018 Clocks were rapidly developing in the Middle Ages and division into a rough quarter hour was imaginable. — Merrill Fabry, Time, 11 Jan. 2018 And viewership peaked with nearly 7 million viewers in the 6:30-6:45 quarter hour. — George Diaz, OrlandoSentinel.com, 17 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'quarter hour.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.