Meaning & use
hour hand
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
The short pointer on an analog clock or watch that shows which hour of the day it is.
Grammar: Countable: a clock has one hour hand.
Patterns
- the hour hand points to something
- the hour hand moves
The hour hand was almost on the five, so it was nearly five o'clock.
The little boy learned that the shorter hour hand moves more slowly.
One day the hour hand fell off the old kitchen clock.
Word forms
| plural | hour hands |
|---|
Common combinations
- the hour hand points to
- The hour hand points to three when it is three o'clock.
- the hour hand moves
- The hour hand moves slowly and takes twelve hours to go round.
- minute hand and hour hand
- Mix up the minute hand and hour hand and you will misread the time.
- a stuck hour hand
- The watch was repaired because of a stuck hour hand.
Synonyms and how they differ
Opposites
Word family
- minute hand noun
- the longer pointer showing minutes
- second hand noun
- the thin pointer that counts seconds
- hourly adjective
- happening every hour
Commonly confused: hour hand or minute hand?
hour hand vs minute hand
The minute hand is the longer pointer that goes round once an hour; the hour hand is shorter and goes round once in twelve hours.
Practice
At exactly six o'clock, the hour hand points to the six and the ___ points to the twelve.
Choose one answer.
On the hour, the minute hand points straight up to the twelve. The second hand keeps moving, the clock face is the dial, and a pendulum is part of some clocks.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hour hand”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.