Halftime

How to spell halftime

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce halftime

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does halftime mean?

1. nounThe interval between the two halves of a sports match, used for rest and team talks.

Halftime in a sentence

• The coach reorganised the defence during halftime.

• The score was level at halftime before the home side pulled ahead.

Where does halftime come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound built from two of the oldest words in the language. 'Half' descends from the Old English 'healf', which meant 'side' or 'one of two equal parts' and goes back to a Germanic root shared with the Dutch 'half' and German 'halb'. 'Time' comes from the Old English 'tima', meaning a period, season, or proper occasion, and is related to the older notion of 'tide' as a stretch of time. The two were joined to name the rest period that splits a game into two equal portions, a usage that grew up with organised team sports such as football and rugby in the nineteenth century. British writing still very often hyphenates the term as 'half-time', so the solid one-word form 'halftime', favoured in American usage, is the spelling to fix in mind here.

How the word is built

• half (one of two equal parts)
• time (period of play)