Latin abbreviation🔤 abbreviation
a.m.
before noon (morning)
What it means
a.m. stands for the Latin 'ante meridiem,' meaning 'before midday.' It marks times from midnight to noon on the 12-hour clock. Its counterpart is p.m. Note that 12 a.m. is midnight and 12 p.m. is noon — a common source of confusion.
Words like “a.m.” are exactly the kind of vocabulary our English vocabulary size test measures — find out how many English words you know.
Examples
- The flight leaves at 6 a.m.
- I'm not a morning person, so 7 a.m. is brutal.
- Doors open at 9 a.m. sharp.
- She works from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where it comes from
From Latin 'ante meridiem.' Written lowercase with periods in US style ('a.m.') and often without in British style ('am').
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