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

Trauma teams use time stamps to log when an interventional need has been reported and when it is resolved using in-district and/or community resources. —Connye Griffin, Kansas City Star, 7 Jan. 2026

So the second one has become kind of a time stamp. —Bryan West, USA Today, 1 Dec. 2025

Avery is very quickly excluded from the suspect pool thanks to the time stamp on a photo of her and her father enjoying dinner together on their own at a local diner. —Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 31 Oct. 2025

Three trays of hot dog buns were missing time stamps. —Sacbee.com, 19 Sep. 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