Linear time refers to the concept of time as a continuous progression from the past, through the present, and into the future. In this framework, events occur in a sequential order, one after the other, much like a straight line. This perspective is commonly used in everyday life, where we plan activities based on a timeline. In computer science, linear time is often associated with algorithms that have a time complexity of O(n), meaning the time taken to complete the task increases linearly with the size of the input. For example, searching through a list of numbers will take longer as the list grows, but the relationship remains proportional.