year

The definition of a year is a period of time equal to 365 days, 12 months or 52 weeks, or a year is 12 lunar months in the Jewish calendar.

(noun)

  1. An example of a year is January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012.
  2. An example of a year in the Jewish calendar is the current year, 5772.

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See year in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

    1. a period of 365 days (in a leap year, 366 days) divided into 12 months and regarded in the Gregorian calendar as beginning Jan. 1 and ending the following Dec. 31
    2. a period of more or less the same length in other calendars
  1. the period (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds of mean solar time) spent by the sun in making its apparent passage from vernal equinox to vernal equinox: the year of the seasons
  2. the period (365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and 9.54 seconds of mean solar time) spent by the sun in its apparent passage from a fixed star and back to the same position again: it is the true period of the earth's revolution, and the difference in time between this and the tropical year is due to the precession of the equinoxes
  3. a period of 12 lunar months, as in the Jewish calendar
  4. the period of time occupied by any planet in making one complete revolution from perihelion to perihelion: for the earth this period is 365 days, 6 hours, 13 minutes, and 53 seconds: it is slightly longer than the sidereal year due to the extra time needed to reach an advancing perihelion, the lag being caused by the gravitational pull of the other planets
  5. a period of 12 calendar months reckoned from any date: a year from today
  6. a calendar year of a specified number in a particular era: the year 500
  7. a particular annual period of less than 365 days: a school year
    1. age: old for his years
    2. time; esp., a long time: he died years ago

Origin: ME yere < OE gear, akin to Ger jahr < IE *yēro-, year, summer (> Gr hōros, time, year, OSlav jara, spring) < base *ei-, to go (> L ire, to go): basic sense “that which passes”

See year in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun
  1. a. The period of time during which Earth completes a single revolution around the sun, consisting of 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 12 seconds of mean solar time. In the Gregorian calendar the year begins on January 1 and ends on December 31 and is divided into 12 months, 52 weeks, and 365 or 366 days. Also called calendar year.
    b. A period approximately equal to a year in other calendars.
    c. A period of approximately the duration of a calendar year: We were married a year ago.
  2. A sidereal year.
  3. A solar year.
  4. A period equal to the calendar year but beginning on a different date: a tax-reckoning year; a farming year.
  5. A specific period of time, usually shorter than 12 months, devoted to a special activity: the academic year.
  6. years Age, especially old age: I'm feeling my years.
  7. years An indefinitely long period of time: it's been years since we saw her.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English yere

Origin: , from Old English gēar; see yēr- in Indo-European roots

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