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Webster 1913 Edition

Month

Month

(mŭnth)
,
Noun.
[OE.
month
,
moneth
, AS.
mōnð
,
mōnað
; akin to
mōna
moon, and to D.
maand
month, G.
monat
, OHG.
mānōd
, Icel.
mānuðr
,
mānaðr
, Goth.
mēnōþs
. √272. See
Moon
.]
One of the twelve portions into which the year is divided; the twelfth part of a year, corresponding nearly to the length of a synodic revolution of the moon, – whence the name. In popular use, a period of four weeks is often called a
month
.
☞ In the common law, a month is a lunar month, or twenty-eight days, unless otherwise expressed.
Blackstone.
In the United States the rule of the common law is generally changed, and a month is declared to mean a calendar month.
Cooley’s Blackstone.
A month mind
.
(a)
A strong or abnormal desire
.
[Obs.]
Shak.
(b)
A celebration made in remembrance of a deceased person a month after death.
Strype.
–
Calendar months
,
the months as adjusted in the common or Gregorian calendar; April, June, September, and November, containing 30 days, and the rest 31, except February, which, in common years, has 28, and in leap years 29.
–
Lunar month
,
the period of one revolution of the moon, particularly a synodical revolution; but several kinds are distinguished, as the
synodical month
, or period from one new moon to the next, in mean length 29 d. 12 h. 44 m. 2.87 s.; the
nodical month
, or time of revolution from one node to the same again, in length 27 d. 5 h. 5 m. 36 s.; the
sidereal
, or time of revolution from a star to the same again, equal to 27 d. 7 h. 43 m. 11.5 s.; the
anomalistic
, or time of revolution from perigee to perigee again, in length 27 d. 13 h. 18 m. 37.4 s.; and the
tropical
, or time of passing from any point of the ecliptic to the same again, equal to 27 d. 7 h. 43 m. 4.7 s.
–
Solar month
,
the time in which the sun passes through one sign of the zodiac, in mean length 30 d. 10 h. 29 m. 4.1 s.

Webster 1828 Edition

Month

MONTH

,
Noun.
[L. mensis; Gr. a month, from the moon.] A space or period of time constituting a division of the year. Month originally signified the time of one revolution of the moon, a lunation, or the period from one change or conjunction of the moon with the sun to another, a period of 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes and 5 seconds. This is the periodical month, or as we generally call it, the lunar month. In this sense we still use the word month. But we also apply the term to the space of time in which the sun passes through one sign, or a twelfth part of the zodiac. This period contains 30 days, 10 hours, 29 minutes, 5 seconds, and it called a solar month. In the year, there are twelve solar months, and thirteen lunar months.
In popular language, four weeks are called a month, being nearly the length of the lunar month. A calendar month differs in some degree from a solar month; consisting of twenty eight, twenty nine, thirty or thirty one days, as the months stand in calendars or almanacs.

Definition 2024

month

month

See also: monð

English

Alternative forms

Noun

month ‎(plural months) The plural is occasionally seen as month (unchanged)

  1. A period into which a year is divided, historically based on the phases of the moon. In the Gregorian calendar there are twelve months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December.
    July is my favourite month.‎
    • 2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
      Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.
  2. A period of 30 days, 31 days, or some alternation thereof.
    We went on holiday for two months.‎
    • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
      Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.
    • 2011 September 29, Jon Smith, “Tottenham 3-1 Shamrock Rovers”, in BBC Sport:
      With the north London derby to come at the weekend, Spurs boss Harry Redknapp opted to rest many of his key players, although he brought back Aaron Lennon after a month out through injury.
  3. (obsolete, in the plural) A woman's period; menstrual discharge.
    • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, vol.I, New York, 2001, p.234:
      Sckenkius hath two other instances of two melancholy and mad women, so caused from the suppression of their months.

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Most common English words before 1923: original · provide · determined · #819: month · news · prepared · support

Etymology

From Middle English month, moneth, from Old English monaþ ‎(“month”), from Proto-Germanic *mēnōþs ‎(“month”), from Proto-Indo-European *mḗh₁n̥s ‎(“moon, month”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *mê- ‎(“to measure”), referring to the moon's phases as the measure of time, equivalent to moon +‎ -th. Cognate with Scots moneth ‎(“month”); North Frisian muunt ‎(“month”); Saterland Frisian Mound ‎(“month”), Dutch maand ‎(“month”); German Low German Maand, Monat ‎(“month”); German Monat ‎(“month”); Danish måned ‎(“month”); Swedish månad ‎(“month”); Icelandic mánuði ‎(“month”); Latin mēnsis ‎(“month”); Ancient Greek μήν ‎(mḗn); Armenian ամիս ‎(amis); Old Irish mí; Old Church Slavonic мѣсѧць ‎(měsęcĭ). See also moon.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /mʌnθ/, [mɐn̪θ], enPR: mŭnth
  • IPA(key): /mʌnθ/, [mʌn̪θ], enPR: mŭnth
  • Rhymes: -ʌnθ

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