diff --git a/include/zephyr/kernel.h b/include/zephyr/kernel.h
index a7a474081e27ea..b2a5ccad9d8219 100644
--- a/include/zephyr/kernel.h
+++ b/include/zephyr/kernel.h
@@ -755,7 +755,7 @@ struct _static_thread_data {
 #define Z_THREAD_INIT_DELAY_INITIALIZER(ms) .init_delay_ms = (ms)
 #define Z_THREAD_INIT_DELAY(thread) SYS_TIMEOUT_MS((thread)->init_delay_ms)
 #else
-#define Z_THREAD_INIT_DELAY_INITIALIZER(ms) .init_delay = SYS_TIMEOUT_MS(ms)
+#define Z_THREAD_INIT_DELAY_INITIALIZER(ms) .init_delay = SYS_TIMEOUT_MS_INIT(ms)
 #define Z_THREAD_INIT_DELAY(thread) (thread)->init_delay
 #endif
 
diff --git a/include/zephyr/sys/time_units.h b/include/zephyr/sys/time_units.h
index c02fd01288726e..46679fc33acf75 100644
--- a/include/zephyr/sys/time_units.h
+++ b/include/zephyr/sys/time_units.h
@@ -38,10 +38,16 @@ extern "C" {
  */
 #define SYS_FOREVER_US (-1)
 
+/** @brief System-wide macro to initialize #k_timeout_t with a number of ticks
+ * converted from milliseconds.
+ */
+#define SYS_TIMEOUT_MS_INIT(ms) \
+	Z_TIMEOUT_TICKS_INIT((ms) == SYS_FOREVER_MS ? \
+	K_TICKS_FOREVER : Z_TIMEOUT_MS_TICKS(ms))
+
 /** @brief System-wide macro to convert milliseconds to kernel timeouts
  */
-#define SYS_TIMEOUT_MS(ms) Z_TIMEOUT_TICKS((ms) == SYS_FOREVER_MS ? \
-					   K_TICKS_FOREVER : Z_TIMEOUT_MS_TICKS(ms))
+#define SYS_TIMEOUT_MS(ms) ((k_timeout_t) SYS_TIMEOUT_MS_INIT(ms))
 
 /* Exhaustively enumerated, highly optimized time unit conversion API */
 
diff --git a/include/zephyr/sys_clock.h b/include/zephyr/sys_clock.h
index 36abcff9f874c1..105d91a1545afe 100644
--- a/include/zephyr/sys_clock.h
+++ b/include/zephyr/sys_clock.h
@@ -115,12 +115,14 @@ typedef struct {
 /** @} */
 
 /** @cond INTERNAL_HIDDEN */
-#define Z_TIMEOUT_NO_WAIT ((k_timeout_t) {0})
+#define Z_TIMEOUT_NO_WAIT_INIT {0}
+#define Z_TIMEOUT_NO_WAIT ((k_timeout_t) Z_TIMEOUT_NO_WAIT_INIT)
 #if defined(__cplusplus) && ((__cplusplus - 0) < 202002L)
-#define Z_TIMEOUT_TICKS(t) ((k_timeout_t) { (t) })
+#define Z_TIMEOUT_TICKS_INIT(t) { (t) }
 #else
-#define Z_TIMEOUT_TICKS(t) ((k_timeout_t) { .ticks = (t) })
+#define Z_TIMEOUT_TICKS_INIT(t) { .ticks = (t) }
 #endif
+#define Z_TIMEOUT_TICKS(t) ((k_timeout_t) Z_TIMEOUT_TICKS_INIT(t))
 #define Z_FOREVER Z_TIMEOUT_TICKS(K_TICKS_FOREVER)
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_TIMEOUT_64BIT