# hour

/ˈaʊɝ/ (US) · /ˈaʊə/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/hour
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. sixty minutes

noun · CEFR A1

a period of time that lasts sixty minutes.

For teachers: a unit of time equal to one twenty-fourth of a day, consisting of sixty minutes.

- The flight to Paris takes about one hour from London.
- The researchers monitored the chemical reaction for exactly one hour to ensure the data remained consistent across all test groups.

### 2. time of day

noun · CEFR A1

a specific point in time, often used when telling the time.

For teachers: a specific point in time or a particular time of day.

- At this hour of the night, most of the shops are closed.
- The city is remarkably quiet at this early hour, before the morning commuters begin to fill the streets.

### 3. working time

noun · CEFR A2

the time you spend at your job or the times when a business is open.

For teachers: the fixed or contractual periods of time dedicated to labor or business operations.

- My father works long hours at the hospital during the week.
- The company recently revised its opening hours to accommodate customers who prefer to shop after finishing their own work day.

Usage: Usually used in the plural form 'hours'.

### 4. military time

noun · CEFR B2 · Technical

a way of telling time using twenty-four hours, often used by the police or army.

For teachers: a system of timekeeping based on a twenty-four-hour clock, typically used in military or technical contexts.

- The meeting is scheduled for fourteen-hundred hours.
- The extraction team was ordered to reach the coordinates by zero-six-hundred hours to avoid detection by enemy patrols.

Usage: Usually follows a four-digit number and is pronounced as 'hours'.

### 5. a distance

noun · CEFR B1 · American English

the distance you can travel in sixty minutes.

For teachers: a measure of distance expressed by the time required to travel it at a standard speed.

- The nearest big city is about two hours away by car.
- Living three hours from the coast makes spontaneous beach trips difficult during the busy summer season.

### 6. a significant moment

noun · CEFR C1 · Literary

a very important time or a special moment in someone's life.

For teachers: a significant or critical point in time, often associated with a particular event or person.

- This was her finest hour, when she finally won the gold medal.
- In the nation's darkest hour, the leader gave a speech that restored hope to millions of citizens.

## Examples

- The flight to London takes about one hour.
- The doctor told me to wait in the lobby for half an hour before my appointment.
- The committee spent several hours debating the new policy, yet they failed to reach a consensus before the building closed for the night.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.