The12-hour clock is a time convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods:a.m. (fromLatinante meridiem, translating to "before midday") andp.m. (from Latinpost meridiem, translating to "after midday").[1][2] Each period consists of 12 hours numbered: 12 (acting as 0),[3] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. The 12-hour clock has been developed since thesecond millennium BC and reached its modern form in the 16th century.
The 12-hour time convention is common in several English-speaking nations and formerBritish colonies, as well as a few other countries. In English-speaking countries: "12 p.m." usually indicates noon, while "12 a.m." means midnight, but the reverse convention has also been used (see§ Confusion at noon and midnight).[4][5][6] "Noon" and "midnight" are unambiguous.
| 24-hour clock | 12-hour clock | |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | midnight 12:00 p.m. 12:00 a.m.[a] (start of the day) | |
| 01:00 | 1:00 a.m. | |
| 02:00 | 2:00 a.m. | |
| 03:00 | 3:00 a.m. | |
| 04:00 | 4:00 a.m. | |
| 05:00 | 5:00 a.m. | |
| 06:00 | 6:00 a.m. | |
| 07:00 | 7:00 a.m. | |
| 08:00 | 8:00 a.m. | |
| 09:00 | 9:00 a.m. | |
| 10:00 | 10:00 a.m. | |
| 11:00 | 11:00 a.m. | |
| 12:00 | midday noon 12:00 a.m. 12:00 p.m.[a] | |
| 13:00 | 1:00 p.m. | |
| 14:00 | 2:00 p.m. | |
| 15:00 | 3:00 p.m. | |
| 16:00 | 4:00 p.m. | |
| 17:00 | 5:00 p.m. | |
| 18:00 | 6:00 p.m. | |
| 19:00 | 7:00 p.m. | |
| 20:00 | 8:00 p.m. | |
| 21:00 | 9:00 p.m. | |
| 22:00 | 10:00 p.m. | |
| 23:00 | 11:00 p.m. | |
| 24:00 (00:00 of next day) | midnight 12:00 p.m. 12:00 a.m. (end of the day) | |
The natural day-and-night division of a calendar day forms the fundamental basis as to why each day is split into two cycles. Originally there were two cycles: one cycle which could be tracked by the position of the Sun (day), followed by one cycle which could be tracked by the Moon and stars (night). This eventually evolved into the two 12-hour periods which are used today, one called "a.m." starting at midnight and another called "p.m." starting at noon.[1]
The 12-hour clock can be traced back as far asMesopotamia andancient Egypt.[7] Both an Egyptiansundial for daytime use[8] and an Egyptianwater clock for night-time use were found in the tomb of PharaohAmenhotep I.[9] Dating toc. 1500 BC, these clocks divided their respective times of use into 12 hours each.
Theancient Romans alsoused a 12-hour clock: daylight and nighttime were each divided into 12 equal intervals (of varying duration according to the season).[10] The nighttime hours were grouped into fourwatches (vigiliae).[11]
The first mechanical clocks in the 14th century, if they had dials at all, showed all 24 hours using the24-hour analog dial, influenced by astronomers' familiarity with theastrolabe and sundial and by their desire to model theEarth's apparent motion around the Sun. InNorthern Europe these dials generally used the 12-hournumbering scheme inRoman numerals but showed botha.m. andp.m. periods in sequence. This is known as the double-XII system and can be seen on many surviving clock faces, such as those atWells andExeter.
Elsewhere in Europe, numbering was more likely to be based on the 24-hour system (I to XXIV). The 12-hour clock was used throughout theBritish Empire.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, the 12-hour analog dial and time system gradually became established as standard throughout Northern Europe for general public use. The 24-hour analog dial was reserved for more specialized applications, such asastronomical clocks and chronometers.
Most analog clocks and watches today use the 12-hour dial, on which the shorter hour hand rotates once every 12 hours and twice in one day. Some analog clock dials have an inner ring of numbers along with the standard 1-to-12 numbered ring. The number 12 is paired either with a 00 or a 24, while the numbers 1 through 11 are paired with the numbers 13 through 23, respectively. This modification allows the clock to also be read in24-hour notation. This kind of 12-hour clock can be found in countries where the 24-hour clock is preferred.
In several countries the 12-hour clock is the dominant written and spoken system of time, predominantly in nations that were part of the former British Empire, for example, theUnited Kingdom,Republic of Ireland, theUnited States,Canada (excluding Quebec),Australia,New Zealand,South Africa,India,Pakistan, andBangladesh, and others follow this convention as well, such asMexico,Colombia, and the former American colony of thePhilippines. Even in those countries where the 12-hour clock is predominant, there are frequently contexts (such as science, medicine, the military or transport) in which the 24-hour clock is preferred. In most countries, however, the24-hour clock is the standard system used, especially in writing. Some nations in Europe and Latin America use a combination of the two, preferring the 12-hour system in colloquial speech but using the 24-hour system in written form and in formal contexts.
The 12-hour clock in speech often uses phrases such as ... in the morning, ... in the afternoon, ... in the evening, and... at night.Rider's British Merlin almanac for 1795 and a similar almanac for 1773 published in London used them.[12] Other than in English-speaking countries and some Spanish-speaking countries, the termsa.m. andp.m. are seldom used and often unknown.[α]
In most countries, computers by default show the time in 24-hour notation. Most operating systems, includingMicrosoft Windows andUnix-like systems such asLinux andmacOS, activate the 12-hour notation by default for a limited number of language and region settings. This behaviour can be changed by the user, such as with theWindows operating system's "Region and Language" settings.[13]
TheLatin abbreviationsa.m. andp.m. (often written "am" and "pm", "AM" and "PM", or "A.M." and "P.M.") are used inEnglish (andSpanish).[14][α] 'Noon' is not abbreviated.
When abbreviations and phrases are omitted, one may rely on sentence context and societal norms to reduce ambiguity. For example, if one commutes to work at "9:00", 9:00 a.m. may be implied, but if asocial dance is scheduled to begin at "9:00", it may begin at 9:00 p.m.
The terms "a.m." and "p.m." are abbreviations of the Latinante meridiem (before midday) andpost meridiem (after midday). Depending on thestyle guide referenced, the abbreviations "a.m." and "p.m." are variously written insmall capitals ("am" and "pm"),[16][17]uppercase letters without aperiod ("AM" and "PM"), uppercase letters with periods, or lowercase letters ("am" and "pm"[18] or "a.m." and "p.m."[17]). With the advent of computer generated and printed schedules, especially airlines, advertising, and television promotions, the "M" character is often omitted as providing no additional information as in "9:30A" or "10:00P".[19]
Some style guides suggest the use of a space between the number and the a.m. or p.m. abbreviation.[citation needed] Style guides recommend not using a.m. and p.m. without a time preceding it.[20]
The hour/minute separatorvaries between countries: some use a colon, others use a period (full stop),[18] and still others use the letter h.[citation needed] (In some usages, particularly "military time", of the24-hour clock, there is no separator between hours and minutes.[21] This style is not generally seen when the 12-hour clock is used.)
Unicode specifiescodepoints fora.m. andp.m. asprecomposed characters, which are intended to be used only withChinese-Japanese-Korean (CJK) character sets, as they take up exactly the same space as one CJK character:
In speaking, it is common to round the time to the nearest five minutes and/or express the time as the past (or to) the closest hour; for example, "five past five" (5:05). Minutespast the hour means those minutes are added to the hour; "ten past five" means 5:10. Minutesto, 'til andof the hour mean those minutes are subtracted; "ten of five", "ten 'til five", and "ten to five" all mean 4:50.
Fifteen minutes is often called aquarter hour, and thirty minutes is often known as ahalf hour. For example, 5:15 can be phrased "(a) quarter past five" or "five-fifteen"; 5:30 can be "half past five", "five-thirty" or simply "half five". The time 8:45 may be spoken as "eight forty-five" or "(a) quarter to nine".[22] In some languages, e.g. Polish, rounding off is mandatory when using (spoken) 12-hour clock, but disallowed when using 24 hour notation. I.e. 15:12 might be pronounced as "quarter past three" or "fifteen-twelve", butnot "three-twelve" or "quarter past fifteen".[23]
In older English, it was common for the number 25 to be expressed as "five-and-twenty".[24] In this way the time 8:35 might have been phrased as "five-and-twenty to 9",[25] although this styling fell out of fashion in the later part of the 1900s and is now rarely used.[26]
Instead of meaning 5:30, the "half five" expression is sometimes used to mean 4:30, or "halfway to five", especially for regions such as theAmerican Midwest and other areas that have been particularlyinfluenced by German culture.[citation needed] This meaning follows the pattern choices of many Germanic andSlavic languages, includingSerbo-Croatian,Dutch,Danish,Russian,Norwegian, andSwedish, as well asHungarian,Finnish, and the languages of theBaltic States.
Moreover, in situations where the relevant hour is obvious or has been recently mentioned, a speaker might omit the hour and just say "quarter to (the hour)", "half past" or "ten 'til" to avoid an elaborate sentence in informal conversations. These forms are often commonly used in television and radio broadcasts that cover multiple time zones at one-hour intervals.[27]
In describing a vague time of day, a speaker might say the phrase "seven-thirty, eight" to mean sometime around 7:30 or 8:00. Such phrasing can be misinterpreted for a specific time of day (here 7:38), especially by a listener not expecting an estimation. The phrase "about seven-thirtyor eight" clarifies this.
Some more ambiguous phrasing might be avoided. Within five minutes of the hour, the phrase "five of seven" (6:55) can be heard "five-oh-seven" (5:07). "Fiveto seven" or even "six fifty-five" clarifies this.
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(October 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Minutes may be expressed as an exact number of minutes past the hour specifying the time of day (e.g., 6:32 p.m. is "six thirty-two"). Additionally, when expressing the time using the "past (after)" or "to (before)" formula, it is conventional to choose the number of minutes below 30 (e.g., 6:32 p.m. is conventionally "twenty-eight minutes to seven" rather than "thirty-two minutes past six").
In spoken English, full hours are often represented by the numbered hour followed byo'clock (10:00 asten o'clock, 2:00 astwo o'clock). This may be followed by the "a.m." or "p.m." designator, though some phrases such asin the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, orat night more commonly follow analog-style terms such aso'clock, half past three, andquarter to four. O'clock itself may be omitted, telling a time asfour a.m. orfour p.m. Minutes ":01" to ":09" are usually pronounced asoh one tooh nine (nought orzero can also be used instead ofoh). Minutes ":10" to ":59" are pronounced as their usual number-words. For instance, 6:02 a.m. can be pronouncedsix oh two a.m. whereas 6:32 a.m. could be told assix thirty-two a.m..
| Device orstyle | Midnight Start of day | Noon | Midnight End of day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Written 24-hour time[28] | 00:00 | 12:00 | 24:00 or 00:00 of following day |
| U.S. Government Publishing Office (1953)[29] | 12 p.m.[a] | 12 m. | 12 p.m.[a] |
| U.S. Government Publishing Office (2000)[30] | 12 p.m.[a] | 12 a.m. | 12 p.m.[a] |
| U.S. Government Publishing Office (2008)[31] | 12 a.m.[a] | 12 p.m. | 12 a.m.[a] |
| Japanese legal convention[32] | 午前0時 (0 a.m.) | 午前12時 (12 a.m.) | 午後12時 (12 p.m.) |
| Japanese common usage[33] | 午前0時 (0 a.m.) | 午後0時 (0 p.m.) | 午後12時 (12 p.m.) |
| Canadian Press,[34] UK standard[35] | midnight | noon | midnight |
| Associated Press style[36] | — | noon | midnight |
| NIST[2] | midnight[b] 12:01 a.m. | noon | midnight[b] 11:59 p.m. |
It is not always clear what times "12:00 a.m." and "12:00 p.m." denote. InLatin,ante meridiem (a.m.) means "before midday" andpost meridiem (p.m.) means "after midday". Since noon is neither before nor after itself, the terms a.m. and p.m. do not apply.[2] Although noon could be denoted "12 m.", this is seldom done[37] and also does not resolve the question of how to indicate midnight.
By convention, "12 a.m." denotes midnight and "12 p.m." denotes noon.[38]However, many style guides recommend against using either because of the potential for confusion. Many recommend instead using the unambiguous terms "12 noon" and "12 midnight", or simply "noon" and "midnight". These includeThe American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,[38]The Canadian Press Stylebook,[34]and theNIST's "Frequently asked questions (FAQ)" web page.[2]
Alternatively, some recommend referring to one minute before or after 12:00, especially when referring to midnight (for example, "11:59 p.m." or "12:01 a.m."). These include the UK'sNational Physical Laboratory "FAQ-Time" web page.[35]That has become common in the United States in legal contracts and forairplane,bus, ortrain schedules, though some schedules use other conventions. Occasionally, when trains run at regular intervals, the pattern may be broken at midnight by displacing the midnight departure one or more minutes, such as to 11:59 p.m. or 12:01 a.m.[39]
Some authors have been known to use the reverse of the normal convention. E. G. Richards in his bookMapping Time (1999) provided a diagram in which 12 a.m. means noon and 12 p.m. means midnight.[40]Historically, the style manual of theUnited States Government Printing Office used 12 a.m. for noon and 12 p.m. for midnight, though this was reversed in its 2008 editions.[30][31]
InJapanese usage, midnight is written as午前0時 (0 a.m.) and noon is written as午後0時 (0 p.m.), making the hours numbered sequentially from 0 to 11 in both halves of the day. Alternatively, noon may be written as午前12時 (12 a.m.) and midnight at the end of the day as午後12時 (12 p.m.), as opposed to午前0時 (0 a.m.) for the start of the day, making the Japanese convention the opposite of the English usage of 12 a.m. and 12 p.m.[33]
The use of AM or PM to designate either noon or midnight can cause ambiguity.(subscription required)
Although noon can be expressed as 12:00 m. (m =meridies), very few use that form.
| Key concepts | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Measurement andstandards |
| ||||||||
| Philosophy of time | |||||||||
| Human experience anduse of time | |||||||||
| Time inscience |
| ||||||||
| Related | |||||||||
.png)