time
Coaches often time time trials to assess athletes' progress.
The sentence describes coaches measuring the duration of timed athletic trials to assess athletes' progress.
Meanings (pronounced /taɪm/)
to measure or record the duration of an event
- The judges timed each runner at the finish line.
- We timed the experiment with a stopwatch.
the indefinite continued progress of existence; a duration measured in some unit
- What time is it?
- Time flies when you're having fun.
Word origin
From Old English tīma ('limited space of time'), from Proto-Germanic *tīmô, from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂imō ('division'). The verb 'to time' (to measure duration) is derived from the noun and is a comparatively modern coinage. The Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to divide' appears across many languages — Greek daiō ('to divide'), Sanskrit dāman ('a portion').
Fun fact
The Proto-Indo-European root *deh₂imō meant 'a division' — time was originally conceived as 'the divisible flow,' i.e., what gets parceled out into hours, days, and seasons. The same root produces 'tide' (originally a 'time' or 'season'), 'today' (literally 'this day'), and via different paths Greek daimōn ('divider of fates,' our 'demon') and Latin tempus ('time').