Farklı saat dilimi yüzünden toplantı gecikti.

Because saat dilimi is a common Turkish noun compound meaning time zone.

In Turkish, many compound nouns are formed like this:

• first noun: bare form
• second noun: usually takes the 3rd person possessive ending

So:

• saat = hour / time
• dilim = slice, segment
• dilimi = its segment

Together, saat dilimi means time zone.

If you said saatin dilimi, that would mean something more literal like the slice/segment of the hour, which is not the standard expression for time zone.

Farklı means different and it modifies the whole noun phrase saat dilimi.

So:

• farklı saat dilimi = a different time zone

In Turkish, adjectives come before the noun, just as in English:

• büyük ev = big house
• uzun yol = long road
• farklı saat dilimi = different time zone

Yüzünden means because of, due to, or as a result of.

In this sentence:

• farklı saat dilimi yüzünden = because of the different time zone

A very useful thing to know: yüzünden often sounds a bit negative, as if something undesirable happened because of that cause.

So it fits well with:

• Toplantı gecikti. = The meeting was delayed / was late.

A more neutral alternative is nedeniyle:

• Farklı saat dilimi nedeniyle toplantı gecikti.

That sounds more formal and neutral.

Because yüzünden works like a postposition-like expression meaning because of, and the noun phrase before it is often left in its basic form.

So:

• trafik yüzünden = because of traffic
• hava yüzünden = because of the weather
• farklı saat dilimi yüzünden = because of the different time zone

You do not need to add something like the dative or ablative to saat dilimi here.

However, with pronouns, Turkish uses special forms:

• benim yüzümden = because of me
• senin yüzünden = because of you
• onun yüzünden = because of him/her/it

So learners often notice that the structure changes with pronouns.

Because Turkish normally puts the verb at the end of the sentence.

So the basic order here is:

• Farklı saat dilimi yüzünden = because of the different time zone
• toplantı = the meeting
• gecikti = was delayed / became late

This is very normal Turkish word order.

English usually says:

• The meeting was delayed because of the different time zone.

Turkish often prefers:

• Because of the different time zone, the meeting was delayed.

with the verb still at the end.

Gecikti is the simple past of gecikmek.

• gecikmek = to be late, to be delayed
• gecikti = was late / got delayed / was delayed

The ending -di is the regular past tense marker, and because of vowel harmony and consonant changes, here it appears as -ti:

• gecik-ti

So the sentence reports a completed event in the past.

Because the verb is gecikmek, not gecikmek without that last syllable. The correct past form is:

• gecikmek → gecikti

This is important because Turkish has two related verbs:

• gecikmek = to be late / to be delayed
• geciktirmek = to delay something

So:

• Toplantı gecikti. = The meeting was delayed / The meeting started late.
• Onlar toplantıyı geciktirdi. = They delayed the meeting.

In your sentence, the meeting itself is the thing that ended up late, so gecikti is the right form.

Yes, toplantı is understood as the meeting in this sentence.

Turkish often leaves nouns without an article, because Turkish has no word exactly like English the. A bare noun can be definite or indefinite depending on context.

So:

• toplantı gecikti can mean the meeting was delayed
• If you said bir toplantı gecikti, that would sound more like a meeting was delayed

In many real contexts, the listener already knows which meeting is being talked about, so the bare noun is natural.

It is understandable, but many speakers might say it a bit differently.

A very common alternative is:

• Saat farkı yüzünden toplantı gecikti.

This often sounds more natural in everyday Turkish if you mean because of the time difference.

Why? Because in many situations, English says time zone, but what really causes the problem is the time difference between places, and Turkish often expresses that as saat farkı.

Another natural version is:

• Farklı zaman dilimleri nedeniyle toplantı gecikti.

That sounds a bit more formal.

So your sentence is understandable, but depending on context, saat farkı yüzünden may sound more idiomatic.

Not necessarily. Turkish often uses the singular when speaking about the relevant cause in a general way.

So:

• farklı saat dilimi yüzünden = because of a different time zone

This can mean that one side was in a different time zone from the other.

If you specifically want to emphasize multiple time zones, you could say:

• farklı saat dilimleri yüzünden

But the singular is not strange if the idea is simply the time-zone difference.

That said, as mentioned above, many speakers would still prefer saat farkı yüzünden for this situation.

Yes. Turkish word order is flexible, although some orders sound more neutral than others.

These are all possible:

• Farklı saat dilimi yüzünden toplantı gecikti.
• Toplantı farklı saat dilimi yüzünden gecikti.

Both are understandable. The first version puts more emphasis on the reason first. The second starts with the meeting, which may feel slightly closer to English structure.

In neutral written Turkish, keeping the verb at the end is still the most important pattern.