Standard Lemma guide

mealtime

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: M IY1 L T AY2 M Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The appointed time at which a meal is served or eaten.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

  • My youngest son has a special cry for mealtimes.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: mealtide

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

the hour at which a meal is habitually or customarily eaten

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: hour, time of day

Narrower terms: breakfast time, lunchtime, lunch period, dinnertime, suppertime

History

Etymology

From Middle English meeltime, from Old English mǣltīma (“mealtime”), equivalent to meal + time. Compare mealtide, Old English mǣltīd (“mealtime”), Dutch maaltijd (“meal”), German Mahlzeit (“meal, mealtime”), Danish måltid (“meal, mealtime”), Icelandic máltíð (“meal”), Icelandic matmálstími (“mealtime”).

Across languages

Translations

9 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: време за хранене (vreme za hranene) — time at which a meal is eaten
  • Chinese Mandarin: 進餐時間 /进餐时间 (jìncān shíjiān) — time at which a meal is eaten
  • Dutch: etenstijd — time at which a meal is eaten
  • Finnish: ruoka-aika — time at which a meal is eaten
  • Mòcheno: molzait — time at which a meal is eaten
  • Nahuatl: tlacualizpan — time at which a meal is eaten
  • Norwegian Bokmål: mål — time at which a meal is eaten
  • Norwegian Bokmål: måltid — time at which a meal is eaten
  • Persian: وعده غذا (va'de-ye ġazâ) — time at which a meal is eaten