time stamp

noun

variants or timestamp

ˈtīm-ˌstamp 

plural time stamps or timestamps

1

: a stamping device used for recording the date and time of day on a document, envelope, etc. (as to indicate when it was received or sent out)

2

a

: an indication of the date and time stamped on a document, envelope, etc.

Problem was, a later check of the time stamp on the motion indicated that it had been filed nearly 40 minutes after Heinrich appeared before Wolf.

—Thanassis Cambanis

b

: an indication of the date and time recorded as part of a digital signal or file (such as an email, digital photograph, radio broadcast, or text message) indicating the time of creation, transmission, etc.

When you share that viral video, it carries a time stamp.

—Cosmopolitan

… highlighted a seeming discrepancy between the timestamps of the phone records and surveillance video, with the surveillance video suggesting the shooting happened a moment or two earlier than the phone records.

—Patrick Kernan

time-stamp

ˈtīm-ˌstamp 

transitive verb

time-stamped; time-stamping; time-stamps

The repository also contains time-stamped versions of your code …

—Jeff Jurvis

Examples of time stamp in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The time stamp became code for the act of smoking marijuana, and eventually spread beyond the Golden State's borders to none other than The Grateful Dead. —Grace Tucker, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025

The only things visible in the video thumbnail are two sets of shoes on grass and a time stamp showing the video is 35 minutes and 59 seconds long. —Julie Mazziotta, People.com, 30 Apr. 2025

The unconfirmed lore behind the holiday is that a group of California teens in the 70s would regularly meet up to smoke at 4:20 pm and their use of the time stamp as a code name took off. —Jeanie Pyun, HollywoodReporter, 20 Apr. 2025

However, the time stamp on the photo indicates it was taken on June 6, 2023. —Josh Hammer, MSNBC Newsweek, 14 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1855, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for time stamp

• firedamp
• amp
• champ
• clamp
• cramp
• damp
• gamp
• lamp
• ramp
• samp
• scamp
• tamp