Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
standard time

standard time

2 3.0
Official time used in a region instead of daylight saving time
  • noun
  • /ˈstændərd taɪm/
translation icon : hora estándar
  • Make sure to adjust your clock back to standard time when daylight saving ends.

If you could shrink enough to stand on an electron, how much, how much would time dilate relative to Standard Time?

Examples

  • Midnight, Eastern standard time.

    New Year's Evil (1980)

  • 6:00 AM eastern standard time.

    The Shape of Water (2017)

  • It's ten minutes to five, eastern standard time.

    Tim (1979)

  • If Israel followed that practice, then only December to February would be standard time.

    Blog text (22)

  • The switch back to standard time is helping me get my sleeping back on track.

    Blog text (25)

  • We're calling for a school-board-wide strike of all students at 11:30 a.m., Eastern standard time.

    The Trotsky (2010)

  • The shuttle Atlantis exploded in space at 3:47 AM, eastern standard time.

    Armageddon (1998)

  • For me, reverting to standard time is a treat because the waning hours of daylight make it feel just a bit more like winter around these parts.

    Blog text (20)

  • Reports from the USGS confirm that at 3:05 PM standard time yesterday, An earthquake, of 6.2 magnitude struck the Northern California areas.

    End of the World (2018)

  • The meeting is scheduled for 2 PM standard time, so please be on time.

Synonyms

local time
vsstandard time
23 1.6

Official clock time used in a place because of its time zone

is the regionwide fixed clock based on a standard meridian not local longitude
civil time
vsstandard time
4.2

Time officially used in a region for everyday activities

is fixed to a standard meridian rather than described by public use
LST
vsstandard time
8.2

The standard clock time for a region not adjusted for daylight saving

is defined by law and tied to a standard meridian rather than daylight shifts

Antonyms

daylight-saving time
  • UK
1 3.1

People turn clocks forward one hour in summer to make evenings lighter

Surface Forms

standard time singular
standard times plural

Morphology

standard + time

The meaning is directly compositional: 'standard' (usual/official) modifies 'time' (clock time), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to the official/normal clock time for a region. This is a common, cross-linguistic concept (e.g., hora estándar, heure normale) and follows regular noun-noun/adj-noun combination patterns, so it will be immediately transparent to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Standard time came from the 1800s when railways needed one clock for many towns so trains could run on the same schedule. Before that each place used its own local time by the sun, but the railways picked a standard clock for whole regions, which is why standard time now means the 'official time' for an area.