prime time

alternative prime-time · alternative primetime · alternative archaic prymtyme

1. uncountablebroadcastingThe block of programming on television during the middle of the evening, usually between 7:00 pm and 11:00 pm.

   Near-synonym: power hour

   1 more example

   The station is moving the new comedy to a prime time slot next month.

   Synonyms: power hour

2. uncountableThe busiest or most important period.

   Summer is prime time for road construction.

   1 more example

   Mass-produced mithai are readily available online, but these five independent shops make their sweets by hand every day, offering their local South Asian communities a taste of the familiar. Diwali is their prime time.

   2022 October 17, Priya Krishna, “It’s Not Diwali Without Mithai”, in The New York Times

3. figurativelyuncountableMaturity; the state at which a person or product will be accepted by the mainstream.

   It took years longer than proponents had hoped, but wireless data is ready for prime time.

   2000, Ira Brodsky, Network World, page 18

   3 more examples

   Can these measures be regarded as useful, promising, or not ready for prime time? We focus only on the utility of these measures for use by policymakers.

   2005, Leanna Stiefel, Measuring School Performance and Efficiency: Implications for Practice and Research, Eye On Education, →ISBN, page 13

   Now, as more and more businesses re-orient themselves to serve the consumer, ethnography has entered prime time.

   2007, John E. Richardson, Annual Editions: Marketing 08/09, →ISBN

   And as with commodity-based models, tour-based models have also not yet reached prime time.

   2008, J. Richard Kuzmyak, Forecasting Metropolitan Commercial and Freight Travel, Transportation Research Board, →ISBN, page 3

4. obsoleteuncountableSpring.
5. obsoleteuncountableA new period or time of youthfulness; the beginning of something.

alternative prime-time · alternative primetime · alternative archaic prymtyme

1. not comparablebroadcastingShowing or broadcasting during prime time.