afternoon

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Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ˌɑːf.tə.ˈnuːn/
• (Scotland) IPA: /af.təɾˈnʉːn/
• (GA) IPA: /ˌæf.tɚ.ˈnun/

Noun

afternoon (plural afternoons)

1. The part of the day from noon or lunchtime until sunset, evening, or suppertime or 6pm.
   • 1966, The Kinks, "Sunny Afternoon":

     And I love to live so pleasantly/Live this life of luxury/Lazing on a sunny afternoon/In the summertime

2. (figuratively) The later part of anything, often with implications of decline.
   • 1597, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Richard the third, Act III, Scene vii, Lines 173 ff. ↗:

     Buck. ...These both put by a poore petitioner
     A care-crazd mother of a many children,
     A beauty-waining and distressed widow,
     Euen in the afternoone of her best daies
     Made prise and purchase of his lustfull eye,
     Seduc’t the pitch and height of al his thoughts,
     To base declension and loathd bigamie,
     By her in his vnlawfull bed he got.

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

Synonyms

• arvo (Australian); aft (dated slang); undern (UK dialect); see also Thesaurus:afternoon

Related terms

• forenoon

Translations

• French: après-midi
• German: Nachmittag
• Italian: pomeriggio
• Portuguese: tarde
• Russian: пополу́дни
• Spanish: tarde

Adverb

afternoon (not comparable)

1. (more often in the plural) In the afternoon.

Interjection

1. Clipping of good afternoon.

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