Daylight Saving or Daylight Savings?: The Hot Word from Dictionary.com

Countries turned their clocks back an hour this weekend to save electricity in a practice known as daylight saving time—or is it daylight savings time?

Most Americans are turning their clocks back one hour, a sure sign that the long days of summer are far behind us.

Speaking of the seasons: Did autumn officially begin with Labor Day? Find out here.

This practice of advancing the clocks ahead an hour in the spring and adjusting them back an hour in the fall is called daylight saving time. But because daylight savings time is used so frequently, the term is also considered acceptable.

A hyphen is part of the common spelling: daylight-saving time. Often the word “time” is dropped, making the phrase simply “daylight saving.” The acronym DST is also used.

In Italy, the practice is called ora legale, which means “legal time.” It is referred to as “summer time” in British English.

One reported consequence of this year’s time change is that certain alarms on iPhones won’t go off at the correct moment. We’re not tech experts, but we do know what the “I” in “iPhone,” iPad,” and “iPod” stands for. Learn the answer, here.

• More from The Hot WordThe controversial practice of DST has been around for over a hundred years. The details of the practice vary from place to place and have changed through the decades. One of the original goals of DST was to save electricity, but there are conflicting reports on how effective it is in actually reducing energy usage. Some states refuse to follow this practice: Do you think DST should continue, or is it just a hassle?

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