# year

Pronunciation: say "YEER" US /jɪɹ/, UK /jɪə/

## Noun

1. A 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.
   - Simple: A period of twelve months or about 365 days.
   - _The bridge took three years to build._
   - _A full year passed before anyone heard from her again._
2. A 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.
   - Simple: The stretch of time from one fixed starting date to the next, like January 1 to December 31.
   - _Tax documents must cover the year from January 1 through December 31._
   - _In the Islamic calendar, the year opens with the month of Muharram._
3. In the plural, a great length of time, often more than expected or wanted. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A very long time, often longer than you expected or wanted.
   - _Hurry up, you've been in the bathroom for years!_
   - _It took years for the waiter to bring our check._
4. In the plural, the age of a person, or a particular period or stage in their life.
   - Simple: How old a person is, or a certain part of 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._
5. A 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.
   - Simple: A year, or part of a year, used for one activity, like school, a sports season or a company's accounts.
   - _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._
6. A level or grade that a student occupies in school or college.
   - Simple: A level or grade that students move through in school or college.
   - _Students in their first year at the academy live on campus._
   - _She skipped a year and graduated at sixteen._
7. The proportion of an animal's lifespan considered equivalent to one year of an average human lifespan, as in a dog year.
   - Simple: A part of an animal's life equal to one year of a human's life.
   - _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._
8. In 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).
   - Simple: In science, the exact time it takes the Earth to travel once around the Sun.
   - _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._
9. The 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.
   - Simple: The time a planet or other space object takes to travel once around its star.
   - _Jupiter's year spans nearly twelve Earth years._
   - _Some comets on stretched orbits have years lasting many centuries._
10. The length of twelve lunations: the time for any phase of the Moon to repeat twelve times; a lunar year.
   - Simple: The time it takes for twelve full moons to pass, about 354 days.
   - _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._
11. The body of students in a school or college who are all at the same stage, taken together as a single group. *(UK)*
   - Simple: The whole group of students who are at the same stage in a school or college.
   - _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._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A Julian year, the average length of a year under the Julian calendar, equal to 365.25 solar days.

## 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."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/year (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).