Background. Time is a multifaceted and interdisciplinary category. A psychological level of analysis allows for a complementary consideration of time with concepts reflected in a person's specific semantic space. Considering the emotional component of the time concept allows for a glimpse into its subjectively significant aspects.

Objective. To identify the features of the emotional component of the adults' time concepts.

Study Participants. The study involved 760 respondents aged 18 to 70 years (205 men; 555 women).

Methods. A limited-choice associative experiment was used to collect data. The study implemented L.G. Babenko's linguo-psychological methodology in which the denotative-ideographic groups and functional-semantic categories serve as the units of analysis corresponding to the associated words included in the emotive thesaurus. Data processing utilized frequency analysis and rank calculations, identifying the core and peripheral levels of the emotional component of the time concept.

Results. The study allowed for identifying the emotional component in the semantic field of associations to the word "time" and analyze its characteristics. Denotative-ideographic groups of emotive vocabulary, reflecting adults' concepts of time, are represented unevenly. Of the entire set of denotative-ideographic groups, only three core groups are represented in the semantic field: love, joy, and grief. Functional-semantic categories are also represented unevenly: "emotional characterization" is represented to the greatest extent, while "external expression of emotions" and "person as the center and bearer of emotions" are represented to the least.

Conclusions. The emotional component of the time concept in adults is dichotomous, with the positive pole being more prominent. The positive pole contains emotions of love, joy, and happiness, while the negative pole contains grief and cruelty.