military time

[ mil-i-ter-ee tahym ]

noun

1. Military. time as reckoned over 24 hours, in which hours in the day are numbered from 0 to 24: in speech, often followed by hundred when the time is on the hour, and preceded by zero when the hour is a single digit:

   We leave at five in the morning or, in military time, zero five hundred.

   The message came through at 17:30 military time.

2. twenty-four-hour clock ( def ).

Word History and Origins

Origin of military time¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

It’s a digital clock that’s on military time.

From New York Times

“I started to think about military background and military time — all of the soldiers were waking up at a specific time, and dogs were being pulled out of their kennels at 6:30 on the dot. There was a precision to it. Maybe that was a way of slightly tweaking the lore from the book.”

From Los Angeles Times

That is why they use military time.

From Encyclopedia.com

That will give the U.S. military time to train Ukrainian soldiers how to operate and maintain the Abrams tanks.

From New York Times

Administration officials say they believe that gave the military time to warn hundreds of relatives and friends to leave.

From Washington Post