Eastern Time Abbreviation: ET, EST and EDT

ET, EST and EDT: which Eastern Time abbreviation fits

Each label is spoken as separate letters and printed in capitals, no dots. ET is the umbrella term. EST and EDT are the precise names for the two settings the clocks move between.

What does EST stand for?

EST stands for Eastern Standard Time. It is the zone's base setting, five hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). When it is noon in New York during the winter, it is 5 p.m. UTC. The same offset matches GMT for everyday purposes.

Be careful with lowercase est. or Est. with a period. On a shop sign or a label, that is short for established, as in "Est. 1952," and it has nothing to do with time. The abbreviation for established page covers that one. In a list of figures, est. can also mean estimated.

What does EDT stand for?

EDT stands for Eastern Daylight Time. When daylight saving time begins, clocks in the zone jump forward one hour, and the offset becomes four hours behind UTC. The extra evening daylight is the whole point of the change.

In the United States the switch happens at 2 a.m. local time as March brings its second Sunday, and they go back an hour when November reaches its first Sunday.

Where Eastern Time is used

The zone covers the East Coast and a good part of the Midwest and South. States fully on Eastern Time include New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and all of New England, along with Washington, DC. Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee are split, with most of Florida, Indiana and Michigan on Eastern Time.

National TV listings often give times as "8/7c," meaning 8 p.m. Eastern and 7 p.m. Central. That shorthand shows how often other zones are measured against ET.

Writing times with the abbreviation for Eastern Time

• Put the zone after the time: "9:30 a.m. ET." For the a.m. and p.m. part, see AM and PM.
• Use ET when a schedule spans both seasons, such as a yearly calendar.
• Use EST only for winter dates and EDT only for summer dates.
• When you write to people in several zones, add a second zone: "1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT)."
• Skip periods. E.S.T. looks dated and can be mistaken for another word.

More shortened words for dates, units and places are listed under common abbreviations.

Common mix ups with EST and EDT

The most frequent slip is writing EST all year long. Most readers understand what you mean, but software that reads the label literally may shift your event by an hour. Another mix up is ET vs EST in travel plans: flight times are always local, so check the airport, not the label.

People also confuse EST with the Eastern European time zones abroad, which use different labels such as EET. If a message comes from outside the United States, confirm the zone before you set a reminder.