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Astral Atlas
Wiki concept · Time & location

Time zone

Also called timezone

A named set of local clock rules, including historical changes; Europe/Berlin is more informative than a fixed UTC offset.

In this entry

Word origin · etymology

Descriptive English compound.

Zone means a belt or region; time zone names a region sharing civil-time rules, not necessarily one unchanging offset.

Merriam-Webster: zone ↗

How we know · epistemology

Historical civil rules

A zone database records political clock rules, including changes over time. These records can be revised, especially for older dates; a present-day offset is insufficient for historical conversion.

IANA: time-zone database ↗

Connected concepts

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Terms used in this explanation

These links connect subjects and terminology. They do not establish a shared historical origin.

Sources & provenance

Use the citations beside each section to distinguish a calculation convention, a historical teaching and an editorial example.

Find these sources across the wiki →

  1. IANA: time-zone database ↗
  2. Merriam-Webster: zone ↗