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Definition 2024


daylight_savings_time

daylight savings time

English

Noun

daylight savings time (plural daylight savings times)

  1. Alternative form of daylight saving time

Translations

Usage notes

  • Many editors replace this phrase with daylight saving time, with no "s" after "saving". Some sources, such as the North Carolina State University's Online Writing Lab, state that the form "daylight savings time" is incorrect. The justification is that "saving" is a present participle, and this "time" is for saving daylight; thus it is incorrect to use the plural noun "savings".
  • Despite such prescription, colloquial use is often daylight savings time, especially in orated speech. Although raw Google searches are very unreliable, these show that about 24% more of all websites (in October 2009) use daylight savings time than daylight saving time.
  • Most dictionaries also list daylight savings time, but in second place, after daylight saving time.[1][2][3] Since dictionaries base their choices more on use in printed sources than in speech, this indicates that more published sources use daylight savings time than daylight saving time.
  • Also of note is that daylight savings time was the name used in the 1976 U.S. legislation.

References

  1. American Heritage Dictionary
  2. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
  3. Random House Dictionary

Anagrams