Sabrina LeMond

ENG 111

Definition Essay

February 25, 2021

What is time?

Earth spins on its axis for twenty four hours a day, changes its tilt on its axis

every three months, and goes around the sun every 365 days, or 364 days on leap

years. This is the universal understanding of the amount of time it takes for Earth to

rotate, change seasons, and revolve around the common star. What is time? The

concept of time could be said to be invented by the Egyptians with the invention of

sundials. However, the time measurements used in modern day is not equivalent to the

measurements used in 1500 b.c when Egyptians utilized the sundial.

Marriam-Webster dictionary defines time as the measured or measurable period

during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues. This definition alludes

to the measurement of length of an activity, not the actual being of what time is.

Truthfully, time is not real. It is not something that one can grab or buy; it is an abstract

idea.

Society is a slave to time. There is a common understanding of time across the

globe, yet individuals experience it differently. When completing tasks that are

necessary but not wanted, time seems to go slow. On the other hand, if doing things

that are enjoyable to the individual, time goes by quicker.

To illustrate, Meredith is a teenage girl who has school in the morning, and then

labors hard at work at her part time job in a restaurant. She attends school from 7 a.m.

to 2 p.m. for five days a week and then heads straight to work for four days of the week.

She does not have a weekend to herself and her only free time consists of the short

hour before work, after school, or after school when she has the day off from work. The

few short hours to herself is so precious to her, so she tries to do everything that she

has been wanting to do in those short hours. However, most days she runs out of time

and ends up feeling empty. When Merideth is at the restaurant that she is employed at,
time seems to go by much slower and she wishes that the inventor of modern day time

measurement would have made it shorter.

Although the sensation of time may be different, the mathematical measurement

of it remains the same across the planet. Relative to the lunar cycle, time is a concept

that everyone has to follow in order to function within