o-dark-thirty

noun

The wee hours.

Meanings

nouno-dark-thirty (uncountable)
  1. informaluncountableThe wee hours.

Origin

By analogy with "o-three-thirty" (0330), "o-four-thirty" (0430), "o-five-thirty" (0530), and similar times as often expressed on the 24-hour clock—early morning hours that archetypally share the characteristics of a still-dark/nighttime sky and a distastefully early time of rising/arousal; the letter o in these terms comes from the /oʊ/-for-zero pronunciation, which (despite its conflated nature) is idiomatically widespread (just as it also is in "two-point-oh" for "2.0", for example); thus, it is not homologous to the o' in o'clock.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

o-dark-thirty. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/o-dark-thirty

MLA

“o-dark-thirty.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/o-dark-thirty. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “o-dark-thirty,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/o-dark-thirty.

Source: o-dark-thirty on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.