Word.ws English Dictionary

p.m.

/piːˈɛm/

p.m. adverb: in the 12-hour period from noon to midnight (the latter half of the day) when using the 12-hour clock. Also the abbreviation of palm muting.

Adverb (1)

p.m. (not comparable)

  1. In the 12-hour period from noon to midnight (the latter half of the day) when using the 12-hour clock.
    • HOURLY PRECIPITATION … 9 PM THROUGH 12 PM (MIDNIGHT) ZERO DAILY TOTAL1971, U.S. Department of Commerce, Hourly Precipitation Data: Ohio, page 14
    • We never say 12 a.m. or 12 p.m. It's either 12 midnight or 12 noon, respectively.2007, Khurana Rohit, Number Game 4, page 144
    Synonyms:
    in the afternoon

Adverb (2)

p.m. (not comparable)

  1. after death

Noun capitalized: P.M.

P.M.

  1. (alternative) Alternative spelling of p.m..
    • We left Chefoo at 2.30 P.M. on Monday, 15th December, and had a pretty rough bit of road immediately after we started. Going up a steep pass, almost due south of Temple Hill, made the mules blow in a most unsatisfactory manner.1896, Alex Armstrong, In a Mule Litter to the Tomb of Confucius, James Nisbet & Co., →OCLC, page 5
    • By 7:00 P.M. we had traveled 210 kilometers and reached this place, called Nei-chiang, a small inland city boasting electric lights but without other modern conveniences.1938 April 5, J. Marvin Weller, edited by Harriet Weller, Caravan Across China, San Francisco, CA: March Hare Publishing, published 1984, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 367
  2. (alternative) Alternative spelling of PM.

Also used as

p.m. is also the abbreviation of palm muting.

p.m. meaning in Tagalog, Arabic and Persian

p.m. in Tagalog

after noon
n.h., n.g.

p.m. in Arabic

after noon
م, مَسَاءً masāʔan

p.m. in Persian

after noon
ب.ظ b.z

Examples of p.m. in a sentence

  • The 12-hour clock uses A.M. for the morning hours of midnight (12:00 A.M.) to almost noon (11:59 A.M.) and the P.M. designation for the hours from noon (12:00 P.M.) to almost midnight (11:59 PM).2009, Robert Bill, Medical Mathematics and Dosage Calculations for Veterinary Professionals, page 348:
  • I am busy. — My office. 5:00 p.m. — 5:00 p.m.2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
  • He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday at 3 p.m.2022 April 4, Susannah Cullinane, Holly Yan, Stella Chan and Cheri Mossburg, “All 6 victims killed in the Sacramento mass shooting are...
  • Some AI startups are taking the workplace back to the dark ages, adopting the Chinese “9-9-6 work schedule” in which employees toil from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. six days a week from Monday to Saturday.2025 August 4, Bryan Robinson, “The ‘9-9-6 Work Schedule’ Could Be Coming To Your Workplace Soon”, in Forbes, archived from the original on...

Synonyms of p.m.

  • in the afternoon

Antonyms

  • a.m.
  • in the forenoon

Forms of p.m.

alternative formPM
alternative formP. M.
alternative formP.M.
alternative formp. m.
alternative formpm
alternative USP
alternative USp

Origin of p.m.

Abbreviation of post meridiem (“after noon”).

Abbreviation of post mortem (“after death”).

Abbreviation of palm muting.

Words that rhyme with p.m.

22 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about p.m.

What does p.m. mean?
P.m. means in the 12-hour period from noon to midnight (the latter half of the day) when using the 12-hour clock.
What is p.m. in Tagalog?
P.m. in Tagalog is n.h., n.g.. See P.m. meaning in Tagalog.
How do you use p.m. in a sentence?
The 12-hour clock uses A.M. for the morning hours of midnight (12:00 A.M.) to almost noon (11:59 A.M.) and the P.M. designation for the hours from noon (12:00 P.M.) to almost midnight (11:59 PM).
What part of speech is p.m.?
P.m. can be an adverb or a noun.
How do you pronounce p.m.?
P.m. is pronounced /piːˈɛm/.

Words near p.m. in the dictionary

  1. P.Engs.
  2. P.G.
  3. p.g.a.
  4. P.G.s
  5. P.I.
  6. p.m.
  7. p.m.a.
  8. P.O.
  9. P.O. Box
  10. P.O.'d
  11. p.o.'ed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: p.m. (page history and authors); P.M. (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-p.m..ogg.

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