Evening is generally defined as the period from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., though this varies based on sunset and local customs. While some sources define it strictly as 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., others extend it from the end of the afternoon (12:00 p.m.) until midnight or the onset of night.
Key characteristics of evening include:
Transition: It begins after the sun sets or when the typical business day ends, often marked by twilight or dusk.
Activities: This time is commonly associated with dinner, socializing, and leisure activities before nightfall.
Variability: The exact timing is subjective and shifts depending on the season, time zone, and geographic location (north or south of the equator).
| Time Frame | Common Definition | Alternative Definition |
| Start | 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. | Sunset |
| End | 9:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. | Midnight |
| Context | Post-work, dinner, social | Astronomical dusk to night |
Because there is no universal scientific standard, the term is best used with specific times for formal arrangements. In some regions, "evening" may be used to refer to any time after 12:00 p.m., though this is less common.
What times (hours) of day do you consider to be “morning”, afternoon”, “evening”, “night”, etc?
What period of the day do you consider to be “evening”?
Is 6 p.m. evening or afternoon?
Is 4 p.m. evening or afternoon?
Is 5 p.m. evening or afternoon?
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As the title says. My daughter and I were having a conversation earlier, and she asked me to order something from Amazon; I was busy so I told her “please remind me this afternoon”. She responded by telling me it is already afternoon (it was 12:10pm). So this made me start to think about times of day and if there is a standard, so I googled it and that was useless because it was kind of all over the place or not specific enough… no real standard definition that I could find.
I would like to preface this by saying this is how I personally reference the different “time periods” throughout the day, it has nothing to do with any proper definitions or scientific research, this is just how I, myself, will reference the different time periods throughout the day :)
So I’m thinking maybe everyone kinda has their own personal “range” they use for specific times of the day? Anyway, I thought it would be fun to see what hours everyone else uses/considers to be morning/noon/afternoon/evening/night/early morning etc or whatever … so here’s mine:
Ok, so to me… (and this is just how I personally define the times of day, when I’m speaking about morning/noon/night etc) goes kind of like this:
morning is like 5am-12pm noon, noon is like 11am-1pm, afternoon is anytime between 1-5pm, evening is between 5-9pm, nighttime is after 9pm til like 2am, then it’s early morning from like 2-5am. So, for example, if it’s like 11am, and I ask my daughter “will you please remind me this afternoon”, I usually mean sometime between 1-3pm, but if I say “will you please remind me later this afternoon” that usually means anytime between 3-5ish pm.
am I psycho? Or does everyone have like a set period of time (in hours) that they kind of use to describe the times of day?
TLDR: What hours of the day do you consider when referencing the different time periods throughout a 24 hour period? For example: Morning/Noon/Afternoon/Evening/Night/Late Night/Early Morning
And does it change throughout the year?