sign of the times
sign of the times noun: something that is symbolic of an era.
Noun
sign of the times (plural signs of the times)
- Something that is symbolic of an era.
- Advertisements of health foods now occupy spaces formerly monopolized by quack medicines, a most healthful sign of the times.1903, Henry Stephen Clubb, Thirty-nine reasons why I am a vegetarian
- We [the black players]’d get off the coach at away matches and the National Front would be right there in your face. In those days, we didn’t have security and we’d have to run the gauntlet. We’d get to the players’ entrance and there’d be spit on my jacket or Cyrille’s shirt. It was a sign of the...2014 July 25, Paul Rees, “‘We got off the coach and the National Front was there … People spat at us’”, in The Guardian
Forms of sign of the times
| plural | signs of the times |
|---|
Origin of sign of the times
From Matthew 16:3.
Questions about sign of the times
- What does sign of the times mean?
- Sign of the times means something that is symbolic of an era.
- What part of speech is sign of the times?
- Sign of the times is a noun.
- What is the plural of sign of the times?
- The plural of sign of the times is signs of the times.
Words near sign of the times in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sign of the times (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-au-sign of the times.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sign of the times.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sign_of_the_times. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.