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

Cotton and others who oppose permanent daylight saving time cite health and safety concerns, often arguing that maintaining standard time year-round would be preferable. —Alexis Simmerman, Austin American Statesman, 1 Mar. 2026

Daylight saving time is set by federal law and marks the difference from standard time. —Yi-Jin Yu, ABC News, 26 Feb. 2026

The switch to daylight saving time (DST) is even tougher on the body than the change to standard time in the fall because darker mornings and lighter evenings go against our natural circadian rhythm. —Korin Miller, SELF, 25 Feb. 2026

When daylight saving time ends, clocks are set back one hour to standard time. —Haadiza Ogwude, Cincinnati Enquirer, 25 Feb. 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