hour

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hour

/aʊə/ UK
/aː(ɹ)/ UK
/uːɐ/ Northumbria, UK
/aʊɚ/ Canada, US
/aː(r)/ India
/ɐʋə(r)/ India
/ɐwə(r)/ India

Sounds like our (depending on accent) · Rhymes with -aʊə(ɹ), -aʊ.ə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

From Middle English houre, hour, oure, from Old French houre, from Latin hōra (“hour”), from Ancient Greek ὥρα (hṓra, “any time or period, whether of the year, month, or day”), from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year, season”). Akin to Old English ġēar (“year”). Doublet of hora and year. Compare horary.

Partly displaced native Old English tīd (“time, hour”), whence Modern English tide.

noun hours · hower · houre · howre

A unit of time of one twenty-fourth of a day (sixty minutes). Holonyms: day < week < megasecond < fortnight < month < year < gigasecond < century < kiloannum, kiloyear, millennium < terasecond < mega-annum, megayear < petasecond < giga-annum, gigayear < exasecond < zettasecond < yottasecond < ronnasecond < quettasecond
Similar: stound, microcentury
A season, moment, or time. Don't come home ever again at this unearthly hour.
poetic The time. The hour grows late and I must go home.
in plural Used after a two-digit hour and a two-digit minute to indicate time. By 1300 hours the position was fairly clear.
in plural The amount of labor demanded by an employer in terms of time. I asked my manager for more hours.
in plural The set times of prayer, the canonical hours, the offices or services prescribed for these, or a book containing them.
US A distance that can be traveled in one hour. This place is an hour away from where I live.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: minute, hr, half-hour, hourly, utc, time, times, night, noon, min, morning, evening, day, timing, schedule, clock

Translations

Every language

noun time period of sixty minutes

Español	hora
한국어	시 si, 시간 sigan
日本語	時 ji, 時間 jikan
中文	小時 /小时 xiǎoshí, 鐘頭 /钟头 zhōngtóu
हिन्दी	घंटा ghaṇṭā
Kiswahili	saa
Português	hora
Français	heure
Deutsch	Stunde
Italiano	ora
Ελληνικά	ώρα óra
Română	oră, ceas
Русский	час čas
Tiếng Việt	giờ, tiếng
العربية	سَاعَة sāʕa
עברית	שָׁעָה sha'á

noun unit to denote the hour, such as military usage in English

한국어	시 si
日本語	時 ji
中文	時 /时 shí, 點 /点 diǎn, 點鐘 /点钟 diǎn zhōng
Français	heures

noun the time

Español	hora
Português	hora
Deutsch	Zeit, Uhr
Ελληνικά	ώρα óra, χρόνος chrónos
Română	oră
Русский	час čas, вре́мя vrémja, годи́на godína
العربية	وَقْت waqt

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MLA

"hour." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/hour. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

hour. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/hour

Chicago

"hour." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/hour.

BibTeX

@misc{hour_2026,
  title = {hour},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/hour},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}