There's a specific meaning behind AM and PM that is surprisingly easy to miss

The clocks have officially gone back in the US, meaning Americans got to enjoy an extra hour in bed on Sunday morning.

And with Daylight Savings coming to an end, an age-old discussion has once more come to the forefront; what does AM and PM actually mean?

You'd think that the topic surrounding AM and PM wouldn't need much discussion considering we use it in our day-to-day lives.

Used to describe whether the time is before or after noon, most of us say or write AM and PM every single day, but have you ever thought about the meaning behind the abbreviations of such terms?

Such topic of conversation previously garnered a lot of attention on X, as one social media user asked: "I might be called stupid after this but wtf does 'AM' & 'PM' Stand for?"

People were divided. While some were baffled that the user had even asked, assuming it was common knowledge, others also had no idea.

One person commented: "Ok I'll be the first one to not offend you for not knowing this. You probably did hear it in school but just forgot it."

While another said: "How did you get through high school without knowing this?"

And a third added: "Literally never thought about it and just learned today."

While a fourth wrote: "My mind just exploded."

"I bet 5,000 people got the answer to that question from this post, when they didn’t even have the question in them before this post. That makes it a great post. It made people think and answered the question," added a fifth.

Others were sarcastic, however, with another adding: "Wow, this gives me a great idea! What if there was some way on the internet that you could search for answers without having to ask specific people? I think a site that could do that might do very well!"

And a second said: "Means look it up on google and it will tell u. But of course you get no interaction if u do it that way."

So what does it mean?

You may already know that AM stands for ante meridiem, in Latin, which translates to 'before midday'.

Meanwhile, PM stands for post meridiem, meaning 'after midday'.

Royal Museums Greenwich explain that 'noon is therefore neither 'ante' (am) nor 'post' (pm) meridiem' and 'midnight is also neither AM or PM'.

If you don't often use AM or PM, you might prefer a 24-hour clock.

This method of timekeeping runs from midnight to midnight with each hour increasing from midnight.

For example, 5pm reads as 17:00, which correlates to 17 hours past midnight.