时间
shí jiān
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Traditional: 時間
Time: time as it passes, a length of time, or free time for doing something. 有时间 is 'to have time', 没有时间 'to have no time', 很长时间 'a long time'. The usual way to ask the time of day is 现在几点 'what time is it now?'.
Thời gian, thì giờ: thời gian nói chung, một khoảng thời gian, hoặc lúc rảnh để làm việc gì. 有时间 là “có thời gian”, 没有时间 là “không có thời gian”, 很长时间 là “rất lâu”. Muốn hỏi giờ thì thường nói 现在几点 (bây giờ mấy giờ).
NounRegister: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 063 (2026-11-14). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ ; en.wiktionary Vietnamese entries via kaikki.org extract, snapshot 2026-07-31 (CC BY-SA 4.0): Hán-Việt reading 时/時 = thời · Vietnamese cognate: Idiomer entry “thời gian” (thoi-gian). Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “时间” mean?
Time: time as it passes, a length of time, or free time for doing something. 有时间 is 'to have time', 没有时间 'to have no time', 很长时间 'a long time'. The usual way to ask the time of day is 现在几点 'what time is it now?'. Literally: time + interval
Is “时间” formal or informal?
时间 is generally neutral.