AM means before noon. This is the 12-hour period from midnight to noon. PM means after noon. It covers the 12 hours from noon to midnight. Using numbers from 1 to 12, followed by am or pm, the 12-hour clock system identifies all 24 hours of the day.
This eventually evolved into the two 12-hour periods which are used today, one called "a.m." starting at midnight and another called "p.m." starting at noon. [1] The 12-hour clock can be traced back as far as Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. [7] .
In particular, AM stands for ante meridiem, which translates into English as ‘before midday’. Meanwhile, PM is post meridiem and means in English ‘after midday’. These abbreviations are used to identify the time in the 12-hour clock format instead of using 24 hours.
AM and PM are the abbreviated terms for Ante Meridiem and Post Meridiem respectively. While AM represents the time from midnight to 11:59 noon, and PM represents the time from 12 noon to 11:59 midnight.