Some countries, including the US, Canada, and Australia, use the 12-hour clock format including AM and PM. What do these abbreviations mean? We will discuss the meaning of AM and PM in this article.
AM stands for Ante Meridiam whereas PM stands for Post Meridiam. This is because the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods- AM which means before midday and PM means after midday and each period comprises of 12 hours in number.
Hence, the term AM & PM is associated with the time-period: AM, is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase ante merīdiem meaning “before midday”; PM is an abbreviation of post merīdiem, meaning—“after midday.”
This rule gets a bit confusing when you take a look at 12PM and 12AM respectively. For example, 12AM - or ante meridiem - does not make logical sense when you look at the rule because it does not actually come after midnight.
Therefore, it is always better to refer to 12PM as noon and 12AM as midnight respectively even if analog and digital clocks do label them as the former.
A 24-hour clock, sometimes referred to as military time, states the time according to the number of hours that have passed since midnight. Starting at midnight, hours are numbered from 0 to 24, removing the need for designations like am and pm. For example, at 23:00, 23 hours have passed since the beginning of the current day.
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