year
Pluralyears
- 1A period of about 365 days (366 in a leap year), roughly the time the Earth takes to go once around the Sun and through a full cycle of seasons, counted from any starting point.
The bridge took three years to build.
A full year passed before anyone heard from her again.
UsageA year ago, every year, for three years. Before a noun, keep it singular: a three-year project (not
incorrect: a three-years project). - 2A period between the set dates that mark a year's start and end: January 1 to December 31 in the Gregorian calendar; the Jewish and Islamic calendars use different dates.
Tax documents must cover the year from January 1 through December 31.
In the Islamic calendar, the year opens with the month of Muharram.
UsageUse no in before last year, this year, next year (not
incorrect: in last year). In the year 1950 sounds formal.Note
This is the year that carries a name or number: the year 1950, last year, the year of the Ox. Where it begins depends on the calendar: January 1, Tishri 1 or Muharram 1. A Jewish year therefore straddles two Gregorian ones, and an Islamic year usually does.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Calendar years can carry animal names such as the year of the Ox. en.wikipedia.org
- The Gregorian calendar year begins on January 1. en.wikipedia.org
- The Jewish civil year begins on Tishri 1. en.wikipedia.org
- The Islamic calendar year begins on Muharram 1. en.wikipedia.org
- A Jewish civil year overlaps two Gregorian years. en.wikipedia.org
- An Islamic year usually overlaps two Gregorian years. en.wikipedia.org
- 3In the plural, a great length of time, often more than expected or wanted.
Hurry up, you've been in the bathroom for years!
It took years for the waiter to bring our check.
UsagePlural, often for years or take years: I've been waiting for years!
Similarages
Note
Exaggeration for a wait that feels endless, typically one of minutes or hours: the bathroom, the line, the waiter. It stretches to days, weeks or months too, as when it's been years since we talked follows a short gap. Ages does the same casual job. Since for years can be literal, tone signals the complaint.
- 4In the plural, the age of a person, or a particular period or stage in their life.
He showed calm, sound judgment well beyond his years.
In her later years she took up painting and sold her work at local fairs.
UsageUsually with his, her, their: beyond her years, in his later years.
Similarage
Note
Plural and usually possessive, this is how English talks about age without numbers: wise beyond her years, in his later years, advanced in years. Phrases such as her early years and his final years mark stages of a life, and of mature years is the polite, formal way to say someone is no longer young.
- 5A yearly period, or part of one, with its own start and end dates, used for a particular activity, such as the school year or the financial year.
Our church choir's year starts in September and ends with the spring concert.
The team's year ended with a first-round loss in the playoffs.
UsageOften in compounds: the school year, the financial year, the academic year.
Similarseason
- 6A level or grade that a student occupies in school or college.
Students in their first year at the academy live on campus.
She skipped a year and graduated at sixteen.
UsageWith an ordinal: in her first year; hyphenated before a noun: a second-year student.
Note
Here the year becomes a rung on the educational ladder. Some school systems number it directly, as in the exams in year 12. In my year means my cohort, the students at the same level. The sense grew out of the scheduled school year: one year of school came to name the stage reached.
Less common meanings
- 7The proportion of an animal's lifespan considered equivalent to one year of an average human lifespan, as in a dog year.
At fourteen, the old terrier was pushing a hundred in dog years.
The vet explained that a dog year is not the same length for every breed.
UsageUsually in dog years, in cat years.
Note
A playful scaling that puts a species name in front of the word: dog years, yeast years. The familiar rule of seven dog years to one calendar year is folk shorthand. Dogs mature quickly at first, so the true conversion is not linear.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The seven-to-one dog-age conversion is a familiar rule of thumb. healthtopics.vetmed.ucdavis.edu
- Dogs age rapidly early in life, and their age equivalence with humans is nonlinear. universityofcalifornia.edu
- 8In astronomy, the exact time the Earth takes to orbit the Sun once, measured by the cycle of seasons (tropical or solar year) or against the fixed stars (sidereal year).
Astronomers track the year from equinox to equinox to keep the calendar aligned with the seasons.
The seasonal year runs about eleven minutes shorter than 365.25 days, which is why some century leap days are skipped.
Note
Solar calendars are built on the year the seasons follow: about 365.2422 days, measured from equinox to equinox. It runs slightly shorter than the sidereal year, counted against the stars, because the precession of the equinoxes moves the reference point a little on every orbit. Tropical and solar are two labels for the same year, and astronomers use them interchangeably.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- The Gregorian calendar follows the seasonal year; purely lunar calendars, including the Islamic calendar, do not. aa.usno.navy.mil
- The tropical year averages approximately 365.2422 days and can be described as equinox to equinox. packolkata.imd.gov.in
- The sidereal year measures Earth's orbit relative to the distant stars. astro4edu.org
- Precession makes the tropical year slightly shorter than the sidereal year. bom.gov.au
- Precession gradually shifts the equinox used as the reference point. rmg.co.uk
- Solar year is another name for tropical year. noaa.gov
- 9The time any astronomical object (a planet, dwarf planet, comet, or other body) takes to complete one revolution around the star it orbits; an orbital period.
Jupiter's year spans nearly twelve Earth years.
Some comets on stretched orbits have years lasting many centuries.
UsageOften with a planet adjective, a Martian year, and compared in Earth years.
Note
By extension, the year leaves Earth: planets, dwarf planets and comets in recurring orbits around stars have their own. Science fiction stretches the idea further, with BioWare's Mass Effect (2007) counting in galactic standard years. Around the same star, larger orbits give longer years, as Kepler's third law describes.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- BioWare developed Mass Effect, first released in 2007. en.wikipedia.org
- Mass Effect uses galactic standard years. en.wiktionary.org
- 10The length of twelve lunations: the time for any phase of the Moon to repeat twelve times; a lunar year.
A year reckoned by the Moon's phases falls roughly eleven days short of the seasonal cycle.
Because the Islamic calendar counts a year of twelve lunations, Ramadan arrives about eleven days earlier each time.
Note
Twelve synodic months, new moon to new moon, add up to about 354.37 days. A calendar that counts only these drifts backward through the seasons. A calendar that wants to stay aligned with them adds an extra, intercalary month from time to time, and that addition is what makes a calendar lunisolar rather than purely lunar. A lunation is simply one of those months.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- A synodic month runs from one new moon to the next. aa.usno.navy.mil
- Twelve mean synodic months total about 354.37 days: 12 × 29.531 days, rounded to two decimal places. aa.usno.navy.mil
- A calendar with years of twelve lunar months regresses through the seasons. aa.usno.navy.mil
- Lunar months can be kept aligned with the seasons by periodically inserting an intercalary month. aa.usno.navy.mil
- Maintaining alignment with both lunar phases and the solar year makes such a calendar lunisolar. aa.usno.navy.mil
- A lunation is a complete lunar phase cycle, or synodic month. aa.usno.navy.mil
- 11The body of students in a school or college who are all at the same stage, taken together as a single group.
The head teacher called the entire year into the hall to talk about exam stress.
He was easily the brightest pupil in his year, and everyone knew it.
UsageOften in my year, the year above, the whole year. US schools more often say class or grade.
Note
British schools in particular treat the year as a crowd of people, not just a stretch of time: pupils speak of my year, the whole year or the year above, and a teacher can address the entire year at once. The meaning shades into the school level itself, and one sentence often carries both.
- 12A Julian year, the average length of a year under the Julian calendar, equal to 365.25 solar days.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of year apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
From Middle English yeer, from Old English ġēar ("year"), going back through Proto-West Germanic and Proto-Germanic to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "year, spring." It is related to German Jahr, Dutch jaar, and Swedish år, and is a doublet of "hour."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Year descends through Middle English and Old English from Proto-West Germanic, Proto-Germanic, and a Proto-Indo-European form meaning year or spring. en.wiktionary.org
- Year is related to German Jahr and Dutch jaar. en.wiktionary.org
- Swedish år shares the Germanic ancestry of English year. en.wiktionary.org
- Year and hour are etymological doublets. en.wiktionary.org