date
1 Americannoun
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a particular month, day, and year at which some event happened or will happen.
July 4, 1776 was the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
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the day of the month.
Is today's date the 7th or the 8th?
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an inscription on a writing, coin, etc., that shows the time, or time and place, of writing, casting, delivery, etc..
a letter bearing the date January 16.
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the time or period to which any event or thing belongs; period in general.
Funeral arrangements will be announced at a later date.
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the time during which anything lasts; duration.
The pity is that childhood has so short a date.
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an appointment for a particular time.
They have a date with their accountant at ten o'clock.
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a social appointment or engagement arranged beforehand with another person, especially when a romantic relationship exists or may develop.
to go out on a Saturday night date.
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a person with whom one has such a social appointment or engagement.
Can I bring a date to the party?
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an engagement for an entertainer to perform.
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dates, the birth and death dates, usually in years, of a person.
Dante's dates are 1265 to 1321.
verb (used without object)
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dates,
present (3rd person singular)
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dated,
past participle, past
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dating
present participle
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to have or bear a date.
The letter dates from 1873.
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to belong to a particular period; have its origin.
That dress dates from the 19th century. The architecture dates as far back as 1830.
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to reckon from some point in time.
The custom dates from the days when women wore longer skirts.
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to go out socially on dates.
She dated a lot during high school.
verb (used with object)
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dates,
present (3rd person singular)
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dated,
past participle, past
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dating
present participle
-
to mark or furnish with a date.
Please date the check as of today.
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to ascertain or fix the period or point in time of; assign a period or point in time to.
The archaeologist dated the ruins as belonging to the early Minoan period.
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to show the age of; show to be old-fashioned.
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to make a date with; go out on dates with.
He's been dating his best friend's sister.
idioms
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to date, up to the present time; until now.
This is his best book to date.
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up to date. see up-to-date.
noun
noun
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a specified day of the month
today's date is October 27
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the particular day or year of an event
the date of the Norman Conquest was 1066
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(plural) the years of a person's birth and death or of the beginning and end of an event or period
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an inscription on a coin, letter, etc, stating when it was made or written
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an appointment for a particular time, esp with a person to whom one is sexually or romantically attached
she has a dinner date
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the person with whom the appointment is made
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the present moment; now (esp in the phrases to date, up to date )
verb
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(tr) to mark (a letter, coin, etc) with the day, month, or year
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(tr) to assign a date of occurrence or creation to
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(intr; foll by from or back to) to have originated (at a specified time)
his decline dates from last summer
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(tr) to reveal the age of
that dress dates her
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to make or become old-fashioned
some good films hardly date at all
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informal
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to be a boyfriend or girlfriend of (someone of the opposite sex)
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to accompany (a member of the opposite sex) on a date
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noun
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the fruit of the date palm, having sweet edible flesh and a single large woody seed
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short for date palm
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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datablenessnoun
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dateablenessnoun
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daternoun
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datableadjective
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dateableadjective
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datelessadjective
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undatableadjective
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undateableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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datesimple
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datessimple
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have datedperfect
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has datedperfect
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am datingprogressive
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are datingprogressive
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is datingprogressive
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have been datingperfect progressive
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has been datingperfect progressive
Past
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datedsimple
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had datedperfect
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was datingprogressive
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were datingprogressive
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had been datingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of date1
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English noun from Middle French, from Late Latin data, noun use of data (feminine of datus, past participle of dare “to give”), from the phrase data (Romae) “written, given (at Rome)”; Middle English verb daten “to sign or date a document,” derivative of the noun
Origin of date2
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Anglo-French, Old French dade, date, from Medieval Latin datil(l)us, from Latin dactylus, from Greek dáktylos, from a Semitic language (and unrelated to Greek dáktylos “finger; dactyl )
Explanation
A date is a particular day of the month, and to date is to go out with someone. You might have the date of your first date with a special someone marked on your calendar. Awwwwwwww. Date comes from the Latin datus, "given," because in ancient Rome when people wrote letters or decrees, they'd say, "given ("data") May 1st" (for example). Date can mean a day of each year, like May 1st, or one historical day, like May 1st, 1873. You make a date to meet someone for dinner. You date your letter. If you make many appointments with one special lady, you're dating her. A date is also a fruit, from the date palm.
Vocabulary lists containing date
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The release date shift follows the recent settlement with California Atty.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
A date at Madison Square Garden was so close that plans were being made for a news conference to announce the fight.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
The Journal verified the company was established weeks before the letter’s date.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
But according to Adam Parker, founder of Trivariate Research, that strategy may be reaching its expiration date.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
Probably from her beauty date with Vivian, the boy thought ungenerously.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
They have also added dates in Munich's Allianz Arena and at Rome's Stadio Olimpico, taking the total number of shows at each venue from two to three.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
“This case is about money Nick’s parents separately set aside for him alone and made irrevocable, to be paid to him on two fixed dates: one-half at 30, and the balance at 35.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
Municipal and corporate bonds also typically feature call dates.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
In the days that followed, Sheeran’s other opening acts dropped out of his tour, leaving his remaining dates in limbo and egg all over his face.
From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2026
We never could have found the dates otherwise....
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
Archaeological remains are often dated using radiocarbon techniques that can produce time windows spanning many decades or even more than a century.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
The couple met in college and dated for three years before getting engaged on a cliff in Ibiza, Spain, according to the couple’s wedding website.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
Those altered plant remains occurred throughout the dated deposits, suggesting that people repeatedly carried vegetation into the cave and burned it there across the span of the past 25,000 years.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
She is no stranger to public romance, having previously dated Olympic table-tennis champion Zhang Jike, a national icon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
The last remains of Homo soloensis are dated to about 50,000 years ago.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
There were the frozen steaks, the fraudulent university, the ill-fated airline shuttle, the bankrupt Atlantic City casinos and a short-lived dating show spun off from “The Apprentice” that was canceled after two seasons.
From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026
The 34-year-old singer and actress purchased the six-bedroom, 8.5-bathroom dwelling for $4.89 million in 2020, around three years before she began dating Benny Blanco, 38, whom she wed in September 2025.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
To reconstruct the possible route, researchers combined mineral grain dating with computer models of ancient ice sheets.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
His relatives have been buried here dating back two centuries.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
Last winter break, I read a book hiding in Grandmary’s closet that laid out “the rules” of dating.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
