afternoon

noun

The part of the day from noon or lunchtime until sunset, evening, or suppertime or 6pm.

(informal) A party or social event held in the afternoon.

(figuratively) The later part of anything, often with implications of decline.

adverb

(archaic in the singular) In the afternoon.

Roots

nona-noon · Latin · ninth hour

Synonyms & related words for afternoon

Find synonyms, related words, and the definition of afternoon. Dendril is a free visual thesaurus that shows them on an interactive map where stronger matches sit closer to the center — no signup, no ads.

Words related to afternoon

Explore words related to afternoon — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include postmeridian, forenoon, morning, evening, antemeridian, midday, noon, noontide. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Where does afternoon come from?

The word afternoon breaks down into one root of Latin origin: the root -noon, from Latin nona (“ninth hour”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.