Difference between "opening hours" and "open hours"

Question

Is there a distinction between "opening hours" and "open hours" in the context of a business?
Doing a quick search, some people have suggested that the term "opening hours" indicates the exact time that a business opens, whereas "open hours" indicates the periods of time that a business is open and ready to accept customers.
Is this the generally accepted usage of these terms?

Lawrence · Accepted Answer

The part that you haven’t stated is that in common business usage, “opening hours” refers to the period the business is officially open. The phrase “open hours” isn’t established in business lingo.
“Open hours” could be interpreted as those times the business happens to be open - which, as one might expect, would often be the same as the official hours. Alternatively, since “open hours” hasn’t acquired a fixed meaning in business, it could be coerced to reference other definitions of “open” (e.g. empty, honest, etc).

Difference between "opening hours" and "open hours"

One Answer

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question