afternoon

/ˌɑːf.təˈnuːn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northern England/ˌaf.təˈnuːn/

afternoon noun: the part of the day from noon or lunchtime until sunset, evening, or suppertime or 6pm. Also the ellipsis of good afternoon.

Noun

afternoon (plural afternoons)

The part of the day from noon or lunchtime until sunset, evening, or suppertime or 6pm.
- Theſe men ſerue God in the forenoone, and the diuell in the after noone;1601, Arthur Dent, Plaine Mans Path-way to Heauen, page 138
- The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious...1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 58
(figuratively) The later part of anything, often with implications of decline.
- Buck.[…]Theſe both put by a poore petitioner
  A care-crazd mother of a many children,
  A beauty-waining and diſtreſſed widow,
  Euen in the afternoone of her beſt daies
  Made priſe and purchaſe of his luſtfull eye,
  Seduc t the pitch and height of al his thoughts,
  To baſe declenſion and loathd...c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC...
(informal) A party or social event held in the afternoon.

Adverb

afternoon (not comparable)

(archaic, singular) In the afternoon.
- I stayd at home till noone, and recᵈ of Crowders for 3 loods of shilling 2l. 8s.; and afternoone I went with my wife to Wakefeild, where by yᵉ way I spent at Toppitt 8d., and wee lay at Jackson’s all night.1646 March 19, Adam Eyre, “A Dyurnall, or Catalogue of All My Accions and Expences from the 1st of January, 1646–[7]”, in Yorkshire Diaries and Autobiographies in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth...
- Afterwards […] they adjourned the court till two in the afternoon, and so went to prayers. Afternoon they called over the names of the rest of the college, demys, chaplains, &c.1688, “Proceedings against St. Mary Magdalen College in Oxon, for not Electing Anthony Farmer President of the said College”, in T. B. Howell, editor, Cobbett’s Complete Collection of State Trials...

Also used as

afternoon is also the ellipsis of good afternoon.

afternoon meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu

afternoon in Hindi

part of the day between noon and evening: दोपहर dopahar, अपराह्न aprāhna

afternoon in Tamil

part of the day between noon and evening: பிற்பகல் piṟpakal, மதியம் matiyam, மத்தியானம் mattiyāṉam, நடுப்பகல் naṭuppakal

afternoon in Urdu

part of the day between noon and evening: دوپہر dophar

afternoon in Telugu

part of the day between noon and evening: అపరాహ్నం aparāhnaṁ, మధ్యాహ్నం madhyāhnaṁ

More languagesFewer languages

afternoon in Malayalam: ഇടനേരം iṭanēraṁ, അപരാഹ്നം aparāhnaṁ
afternoon in Kannada: ಮಧ್ಯಾಹ್ನ, ಮಧ್ಯಾಹ್ನದ
afternoon in Odia: ଅପରାହ୍ନ
afternoon in Assamese: আবেলি abeli, বিয়লি bioli, পিছবেলা pisbela, ভাটিবেলা bhatibela
afternoon in Tagalog: hapon
afternoon in Arabic: بَعْد الظُّهْر baʕd aẓ-ẓuhr, بَعْدَ الزَّوَال baʕda z-zawāl, زَوَالِيّ zawāliyy, هَاجِرِيّ hājiriyy
afternoon in Malay: petang, sore
afternoon in Indonesian: sore
afternoon in Persian: بعد از ظهر ba'd az zohr
afternoon in Thai: ตอนบ่าย dtɔɔn-bàai, ยามบ่าย yaam bàai
afternoon in Vietnamese: buổi chiều, chiều
afternoon in Myanmar: မွန်းလွဲ mwan:lwai:, နေ့လည် ne.lany, ညနေ nya.ne

Examples of afternoon in a sentence

Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
If the afternoon was fine they strolled together in the park, very slowly, and with pauses to draw breath wherever the ground sloped upward.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, pages...
Here the stripped panelling was warmly gold and the pictures, mostly of the English school, were mellow and gentle in the afternoon light.1963, Margery Allingham, “Miss Thyrza’s Chair”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 41:
And I love to live so pleasantly/Live this life of luxury/Lazing on a sunny afternoon/In the summertime1966, The Kinks, Sunny Afternoon:

All 40 example sentences with afternoon

Synonyms of afternoon

Antonyms

morning

Forms of afternoon

plural	afternoons
alternative form (archaic)	afternoone

Plural of afternoon: afternoons

Origin of afternoon

From Middle English afternone, after-non, equivalent to after- + noon.

Words formed from afternoon

Phrases with afternoon

Words that rhyme with afternoon

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about afternoon

What does afternoon mean?: Afternoon means the part of the day from noon or lunchtime until sunset, evening, or suppertime or 6pm.
What is afternoon in Hindi?: Afternoon in Hindi is दोपहर (dopahar), अपराह्न (aprāhna). See Afternoon meaning in Hindi.
How do you use afternoon in a sentence?: Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr.
What part of speech is afternoon?: Afternoon can be a noun or an adverb.
How do you pronounce afternoon?: Afternoon is pronounced /ˌɑːf.təˈnuːn/ (UK).
What is the plural of afternoon?: The plural of afternoon is afternoons.

Words near afternoon in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: afternoon (page history and authors); afternoon (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); afternoon (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-afternoon.ogg, en-us-afternoon.ogg.

Cite this entry: “afternoon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/afternoon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.