Phrase guide

rush hour

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.

  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The times of the day when traffic jams are commonplace, due mainly to people commuting to or from work.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, idiomatic, uncountable

Examples

  • It takes 30 minutes to drive there, but maybe 2 hours during the rush hour.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

the times at the beginning and end of the working day when many people are traveling to or from work

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

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

49 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: سَاعَة اَلذُّرْوَة (sāʕat aḏ-ḏurwa) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Armenian: պիկ ժամ (pik žam) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Belarusian: гадзі́на пі́к (hadzína pík) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Catalan: hora punta — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Catalan: hora pic — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Chinese Mandarin: 高峰時段 /高峰时段 (gāofēng shíduàn) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Chinese Mandarin: 繁忙時段 /繁忙时段 (fánmáng shíduàn) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Czech: dopravní špička — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Danish: myldretid — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Dutch: spits — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Dutch: spitsuur — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Estonian: tipptund — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Finnish: ruuhka-aika — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • French: heure de pointe — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • German: Stoßzeit — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • German: Hauptverkehrszeit — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • German: Rushhour — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Hebrew: שְׁעַת שִׂיא (she'át sí) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Hungarian: csúcsforgalom — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Icelandic: háannatími — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Italian: ora di punta — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Japanese: ラッシュ時 (rasshu-ji) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Japanese: ラッシュアワー (rasshu awā) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Japanese: 通勤ラッシュ (tsūkin rasshu) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Korean: 러시아워 (reosiawo) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Korean: 출퇴근 시간 (chultoegeun sigan) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Norwegian Bokmål: rushtid — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: rushtid — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Polish: godziny szczytu — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Portuguese: horário de pico — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Portuguese: hora do rush — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Portuguese: hora de ponta — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Romanian: oră de vârf — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Russian: час пи́к (čas pík) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Spanish: hora del taco — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Spanish: hora "peak" — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Spanish: hora pico — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Spanish: hora punta — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Spanish: hora de apuros — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Spanish: hora pendularista — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Swedish: rusningstid — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Swedish: rusningstrafik — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Tigrinya: መኪና ዝበዝሓሉ እዋን (mäkina zəbäzḥalu ʾəwan) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Tigrinya: ግዜ ዋሕዚ (gəze waḥzi) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Ukrainian: годи́на пі́к (hodýna pík) — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Vietnamese: giờ cao điểm — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • Welsh: awr frys — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • West Frisian: spits — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting
  • West Frisian: spitsoere — times of day when traffic jams are commonplace, principally due to commuting