I took a few OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute – geezer classes) science courses from a wonderful Austrian physicist with a great sense of humor. In one he spent a lot of time talking about time (sorry, no bad “pun” intended), including the fact that it’s difficult to define time without using the word “time”, and told us that some physicists say that “time is the thing which can be measured by clocks.”
Don’t knock it until you try it!