Is 12 PM at noon? How is that when 11 am is in the morning And 1 am is in the night. Where did the 12 am go?
meaning - What time is 12.00pm? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
abbreviations - Use of “12 m.” for noon and “12 p.m.” for midnight - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
What does "12pm" mean?
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I was talking to a native speaker (American woman ) and she corrected me as I was talking to her that 12 PM is the one in the day time not 12 AM. I don’t know if I have had it wrong all my life or what.
Wikipedia quotes The Chicago Manual of Style Online and says that
Although "12 m." was suggested as a way to indicate noon, this is seldom done and also does not resolve the question of how to indicate midnight.
I do not have access to this source, but found a more complete quote:
Except in the twenty-four-hour system (see 9.39), numbers should never be used to express noon or midnight (except, informally, in an expression like twelve o'clock at night). Although noon can be expressed as 12:00 m. (m. = meridies), very few use that form. And the term 12:00 p.m. is ambiguous, if not illogical. (source)
...and I think presently “12 p.m.” means noon, not midnight. Was it different in 1984?
Yes, absolutely! Things were different at the U. S. Government Printing Office in 1984:
For some people, including the United States Government Printing Office before 2008, the twelve hours before noon are numbered one o’clock ᴀᴍ up until twelve o’clock ᴀᴍ, and the twelve hours after noon are one o’clock ᴘᴍ up until twelve o’clock ᴘᴍ. Then in 2008, the US GPO switched things around.
Please see the lengthier article linked to above for why “12 a.m. and 12 p.m. are ambiguous and should not be used.”
I have the following deadline from a class:
"All reading posts are due the day before class at 12pm"
"i.e. if you are writing a reading response for Tuesday's class, it is due by 12pm Monday."
Does it mean that it is due at 12:00 noon, or 12:00 midnight?
I was assuming midnight, but because there are marks for a late submission, I really don't want to be wrong about this!
Edit: Thanks all, saved me! I'll save my response for another week then, since we can submit them rather flexibly.