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

However, many sleep experts favor permanent standard time because morning light helps regulate sleep and wake cycles. — Chris Hardesty, AJC.com, 23 July 2026

In 2018, there was a proposal for the European Union to end the practice of changing clocks twice a year to switch between standard time and daylight saving time. — Los Angeles Times, 22 July 2026

The American Medical Association has also called for permanent standard time. — Beth Ann Malow, The Conversation, 21 July 2026

Some medical and health advocates argue that the human body's internal clock is better aligned with the sun during standard time rather than daylight saving time. — Yonat Shimron, NPR, 16 July 2026

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