What noon marks
Noon is lunch for a lot of people: the cafeteria's first sitting, the office lunch hour, the end of a morning shift. On the clock it's the halfway point of the day.
It isn't quite the middle of the day in the sky. The sun is highest at solar noon, which depends on where you are within your time zone, and with daylight saving time it often comes nearer to 1 PM than to 12.
- 12 PM or 12 AM?
- Noon is 12:00 PM; midnight is 12:00 AM.
- On a 24-hour clock
- Noon is 12:00, and 1 PM is 13:00.
- Noon deadlines
- Sales, ticket releases and forms that close “at noon” close at 12:00 in their own time zone, which may not be yours.
Noon questions
Is 12 PM noon or midnight?
12 PM is noon. PM stands for post meridiem, “after midday”, and the hour that starts at noon is the first PM hour. Midnight is 12 AM.
How many minutes until 12 PM?
The line under the counter gives the total in minutes and seconds, updated every second. In the afternoon it counts to noon tomorrow.
Why isn't the sun highest at 12 noon?
Clock time is shared across a whole time zone, but the sun's position depends on your longitude, and daylight saving time moves the clock an hour ahead. So solar noon, when the sun is highest, can come well before or after 12:00 — often nearer 1 PM in summer.
Count down to another time
The other times people search for most — or type any time on How long until…?
- How Long Until 3:30 PM?School's out
- How Long Until Midnight?A new day
- How Long Until 5 PM?The end of the work day
- How Long Until 3 PM?Check-in time
- How Long Until 4 PM?The closing bell
- How Long Until 1:30 PM?Half past one
- How Long Until 6 PM?Dinner time
- How Long Until 8 PM?Prime time
- How Long Until 7 PM?The evening starts