12-hour clock

A typical analog 12-hour clock

The 12-hour clock is a method of telling the time in which the civil day runs from midnight until next midnight.

  • AM (ante meridiem) = midnight until midday.
  • PM (post meridiem) = midday until midnight.

The following numbers (used twice in the same civil day) of hours are: 12 (acting as 0), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, with AM or PM.

Both names are from Latin and Latin: ante meridiem, means "before midday" and Latin: post meridiem means "after midday".[1]

World map showing the usage of 12 or 24-hour clock in different countries     24-hour     24-hour (12-hour orally)     Both in common use     12-hour

The 12-hour time is common in several English-speaking countries and former British colonies (such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the English speaking parts of Canada or India), as well as a few other countries. There is no widely accepted convention for how midday and midnight should be represented: in English-speaking countries, "12:00 PM" means 12 o'clock noon, while "12:00 AM" means 12 o'clock midnight.[2][3][4]

24-hour clock 12-hour clock
00:00 12:00 AM
Midnight
01:00 1:00 AM
02:00 2:00 AM
03:00 3:00 AM
04:00 4:00 AM
05:00 5:00 AM
06:00 6:00 AM
07:00 7:00 AM
08:00 8:00 AM
09:00 9:00 AM
10:00 10:00 AM
11:00 11:00 AM
12:00 12:00 PM
Noon
Midday
13:00 1:00 PM
14:00 2:00 PM
15:00 3:00 PM
16:00 4:00 PM
17:00 5:00 PM
18:00 6:00 PM
19:00 7:00 PM
20:00 8:00 PM
21:00 9:00 PM
22:00 10:00 PM
23:00 11:00 PM

12-hour Clock Media

References

  1. Time 28 (1986). p. 660 2a.
    Time. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  2. Is noon 12 am or 12 pm? (in en). Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
  3. U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual - Chapter 12 - Numerals. govinfo.gov. Retrieved 2023-01-27.
  4. time of day, elapsed time. Resources of the Language Portal of Canada (2020-10-22). Retrieved 2023-01-27.

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