year
Meanings
- A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle of seasons.
- The time taken for the Earth to return to the same position along the ecliptic, completing a full cycle of seasons; a tropical year or solar year.
- The time taken for the Earth to orbit the Sun with respect to the fixed stars; a sidereal year.
- The length of twelve lunations; the time taken for any moon phase to happen twelve times; a lunar year.
- The length of a year as marked by a calendar, 365 or 366 days in the Gregorian calendar; a calendar year.
- The mean length of a calendar year in the Julian calendar, that is, 365.25 solar days; a Julian year.
- An orbital period: the period of one revolution in any particular orbit: The time it takes for any astronomical object (such as a planet, dwarf planet, small Solar System body, or comet) in direct orbit around a star (such as the Sun) to make one revolution around the star.
- A period between set dates that mark a year, such as from January 1 to December 31 by the Gregorian calendar, from Tishri 1 to Elul 29 by the Jewish calendar, and from Muharram 1 to Dhu al-Hijjah 29 or 30 by the Islamic calendar.
- A scheduled part of a calendar year spent in a specific activity.
- A level or grade in school or college.
- The proportion of a creature's lifespan equivalent to one year of an average human lifespan (see also dog year).
- Pronunciation spelling of here.
- Pronunciation spelling of hear.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁-der.? Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥der. Proto-Germanic *jērą Proto-West Germanic *jār Old English ġēar Middle English yeer English year From Middle English yeer, yere, from Old English ġēar (“year”), from Proto-West Germanic *jār, from Proto-Germanic *jērą (“year”), from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year, spring”). Doublet of hora and hour. Cognates Cognate with Scots year (“year”), North Frisian djooar, iir, Jaar, jeer, juar, jäär (“year”), Saterland Frisian Jíer (“year”), West Frisian jier (“year”), Bavarian Joahr, Jåar, Jåhr (“year”), Cimbrian djar, jaar (“year”), Dutch jaar (“year”), German Jahr (“year”), Limburgish jaor, Johr, Joër (“year”), Low German Johr, Jåhr (“year”), Luxembourgish Joer (“year”), Mòcheno jor (“year”), Swabian Johr (“year”), Vilamovian jür (“year”), West Flemish joar (“year”), Yiddish יאָר (yor), יאָהר (yohr, “year”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish år (“year”), Faroese and Icelandic ár (“year”), Gothic 𐌾𐌴𐍂 (jēr, “year”).