meaning - How should "midnight on..." be interpreted? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
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?
Is midnight 12PM or 0AM? Or are they both correct?
What day is midnight?
Is midnight 12 AM or PM?
Is 12AM a new day?
Which day is midnight on a day?
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When someone says “I have a flight to catch on Monday at midnight.” do they mean the 12am between Sunday and Monday, or the 12am between Monday and Tuesday?
I think it depends on what time does the day actually start. I believe it’s 12:00am. So I’m thinking “on Monday at midnight” is the beginning of the day on Monday right after Sunday. But it sounds weird because the word “midnight” seems to have a very late connotation to it rather than actually being early. I’m not sure, but I would think that’s why actual flight times never fall on 12:00 on the dot to avoid confusion.
It's a matter of convention, and the informal convention is that "midnight on the 10th" is more commonly the night between the 10th and the 11th. But the term is awfully ambiguous, and people do use it both ways.
(When I've scheduled things with "midnight" deadlines, I always say "11:59pm on the 10th" or something like that, to avoid the ambiguity. From experience, if you don't people will ask which you mean.)
By most definitions, the date changes at midnight. That is, at the precise stroke of 12:00:00. That time, along with 12:00:00 noon, are technically neither AM or PM because AM and PM mean "ante-meridiem" and "post-meridiem", and noon and midnight are neither ante- nor post- meridiem. However, for convenience, most people lump the 12:00:00 time with its nearest neighbour, 12:00:01, which IS AM or PM.
Since the date changes at the stroke of midnight, there is always ambiguity about which date you refer to. Midnight on the 10th technically means at the start of the 10th, but when most people speak they mean it to be at the end of the 10th.
If I said "I'll meet you Friday at midnight" or "I'll meet you Friday night at midnight" you (and most people) would probably interpret both times as the midnight that follows Friday noon. However, there are cases where the first sentence really means "the midnight at the start of Friday".
Since the common usage conflicts with the technical definition, if you want to be totally clear, use other words or other times.
Friday night at midnight
probably will always be interpreted as "Midnight in the night which follows Friday evening".
Midnight tonight
This means (to me) the midnight following today.
11:59 PM Friday
12:01 AM Saturday
These are totally unambiguous.
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.