Word.ws English Dictionary

on the half hour

on the half hour prepositional phrase: happening hourly, but at 30 minutes past each hour; ie, 08:30, 09:30 etc.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Happening hourly, but at 30 minutes past each hour; ie, 08:30, 09:30 etc.
    • Trains leave here for New York every hour on the half hour.
  2. Happening on the hour and at 30 minutes after the hour.
    • In one corner is an old grandfather's clock; the chimes are on the half-hour.2011, Studs Terkel, "The Good War": An Oral History of World War II
    • He bought and framed Japanese prints, and she chose a bronze mantelpiece clock with a silver bell that struck on the half hour.2010, Stephanie Cowell, Claude & Camille, page 248
  3. At thirty minutes into a half.

Questions about on the half hour

What does on the half hour mean?
On the half hour means happening hourly, but at 30 minutes past each hour; ie, 08:30, 09:30 etc.
What part of speech is on the half hour?
On the half hour is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the half hour in the dictionary

  1. on the grid
  2. on the gridiron
  3. on the gripping hand
  4. on the grog
  5. on the ground
  6. on the half hour
  7. on the heels of
  8. on the high rope
  9. on the high ropes
  10. on the hog
  11. on the hog train

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the half hour (page history and authors). 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-on the half hour.oga.

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