Dinner usually refers to the most significant, and important, meal of the day, which can be the noon or the evening meal. However, the term "dinner" can have many different meanings depending on the culture; it may mean a meal of any size eaten at any time of day. Historically, it referred to the first meal of the day, eaten around noon, and is still sometimes used for a noontime meal, particularly if it is a large or main meal. However, the meaning as the evening meal, generally the largest of the day, is becoming standard in most parts of the English-speaking world. The average dinner time in the U.K. for those who call their evening meal dinner has been found to be at 7.47pm.In most modern usages, the term dinner now refers to the evening meal, which is now often the most significant meal of the day in English-speaking cultures. When using this meaning, the preceding meals are usually referred to as breakfast and lunch. In some areas, the tradition of using dinner to mean the most important meal of the day regardless of time of day leads to a variable name for meals depending on the combination of their size and the time of day, while in others meal names are fixed based on the time they are consumed.
