hour

English Online Dictionary. What means hour‎? What does hour mean?

English

Alternative forms

• hower, houre, howre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English houre, hour, oure, from Anglo-Norman houre, from Old French houre, (h)ore, 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.

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: owʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈaʊə(ɹ)/
• (US, Canada) enPR: owr, IPA^(key): /ˈaʊɚ/
• (India) IPA^(key): /aː(r)/, /ɐʋə(r)/, /ɐwə(r)/
• Rhymes: -aʊə(ɹ)
• Homophone: our (depending on accent)
• Rhymes: -aʊ.ə(ɹ)

Noun

hour (plural hours)

2. (time) A unit of time of one twenty-fourth of a day (sixty minutes).
3. A season, moment, or time.
4. (poetic) The time.

5. (military, in the plural) Used after a two-digit hour and a two-digit minute to indicate time.
6. (chiefly in the plural) The amount of labor demanded by an employer in terms of time.

7. (Christianity, in the plural) The set times of prayer, the canonical hours, the offices or services prescribed for these, or a book containing them.
8. (chiefly US) A distance that can be traveled in one hour.

Symbols

• h

Abbreviations

• Singular: hr
• Plural: hrs

Synonyms

• (period of sixty minutes, a season or moment): stound (obsolete); microcentury (humorous approximation)

Derived terms

English terms starting with “hour”

Descendants

• Bislama: aua
• Tok Pisin: aua
• → Hausa: awa

Translations

Anagrams

• rohu

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

hour

1. Alternative form of houre

Etymology 2

Determiner

hour

1. Alternative form of oure

Etymology 3

Determiner

hour

1. Alternative form of your