DictionaryAI

October

ok-TOH-bur/ɑkˈtoʊ.bəɹ/UKok-TOH-buh/ɒkˈtəʊ.bə/

3 meanings of October

Practice

  1. 1
    monthnouncountable or uncountable
    The year's tenth month, 31 days long, which follows September and precedes November.

    The conference has been moved to the second week of October.

    She has spent the last three Octobers hiking in Vermont.

    UsageUse in October but on October 15 (not incorrect: in October 15). It takes a capital letter, and the plural is Octobers.

    Note

    The name keeps an old count. Latin Octōber is built on octō, "eight", because it was the eighth month of the Roman calendar; the month now stands tenth, but the name outlasted Domitian's renaming, and it reached English through Old French.

  2. 2
    alenounarchaichistoricaluncountable
    A type of ale traditionally brewed in the month of October.

    Country households brewed their own October and tapped it only after long storage.

    Sir, if I vvas vvorthy to adviſe you, I vvou'd have a Bottle of good October by me. Shall I ſet a Cup of old Stingo at your Elbovv?
    1716, [Joseph Addison], The Drummer

    UsageSaid as a glass of October or a bottle of October, keeping its capital letter.

    Note

    This is a word of the eighteenth-century table. Joseph Addison's The Drummer (1716) offers "a Bottle of good October," and Smollett's Peregrine Pickle (1751) "a glass of his October." Use it in historical settings, as Stanley Weyman does when he stocks an Oxford room of 1767 with "beef and October."

Less common meaning

  1. 3
    verb
    To give a child, in the early Soviet Union, a name tinged with revolutionary ideology rather than a religious christening.

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Origin

October comes through Middle English and Old French "octobre" from Latin "Octōber" ("eighth month"), built on "octō" ("eight") (from Proto-Indo-European *oḱtṓw) plus an adjectival suffix. It was the eighth month in the Roman calendar.

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts