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

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

Currently, the shift is forward in spring and back to standard time in fall as a way to give people more daylight time in the summer evenings. — Deepti Hajela, Fortune, 16 July 2026

Ashtaad Dalal, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, argues that permanent standard time is the better option for public health. — Laurie Mermet, Sun Sentinel, 16 July 2026

Some states have already made standard time permanent, including Arizona and Hawaii, which would be exempt from the Sunshine Protection Act. — Emma Roth, The Verge, 15 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