month
Americannoun
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months
plural
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Also called calendar month. any of the twelve parts, as January or February, into which the calendar year is divided.
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the time from any day of one calendar month to the corresponding day of the next.
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a period of four weeks or 30 days.
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Also called solar month. one-twelfth of a solar or tropical year.
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Also called lunar month. the period of a complete revolution of the moon around the earth, as the period between successive new moons synodic month, equal to 29.531 days, or the period between successive conjunctions with a star sidereal month, equal to 27.322 days, or the period between successive perigees anomalistic month, equal to 27.555 days, or the period between successive similar nodes nodical month, or draconic month, equal to 27.212 days.
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an unusually long period of time of indefinite length.
I haven't seen him for months.
idioms
noun
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one of the twelve divisions ( calendar months ) of the calendar year
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a period of time extending from one date to a corresponding date in the next calendar month
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a period of four weeks or of 30 days
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the period of time ( tropical month ) taken by the moon to return to the same longitude after one complete revolution around the earth; 27.321 58 days (approximately 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 4.5 seconds)
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the period of time ( sidereal month ) taken by the moon to make one complete revolution around the earth, measured between two successive conjunctions with a distant star; 27.321 66 days (approximately 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 11 seconds)
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Also called: lunation. the period of time ( lunar or synodic month ) taken by the moon to make one complete revolution around the earth, measured between two successive new moons; 29.530 59 days (approximately 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 3 seconds)
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informal a long unspecified period
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of month
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English mōnath; cognate with Old High German mānōd, Old Norse mānathr. See moon
Explanation
A year is divided into twelve months, starting with January and ending with December. If it takes you a month to read a book, it takes approximately thirty days. A month is a unit of time that corresponds to the phases of the moon — which is the reason the word month, which comes from the Proto-Germanic menoth, is closely related to the word moon, whose root is menon. People have kept track of days this way since Paleolithic times, and even those who don't use the Gregorian, twelve-month calendar, still divide a year into months based on the moon.
Vocabulary lists containing month
Space Science (Astronomy) - Introductory
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Earth and the Solar System - Middle School
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Earth and the Solar System - Introductory
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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:
BH: The two beaded dresses took over a month because every bead was hand beaded and sewn on.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
Steve Buck joined the company in April 2025 but it is understood the seven-figure payment was not made until last month after the company had taken legal advice over its contractual obligations.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Last month, the LSE said it would introduce 24-hour trading for exchange-traded products in its latest bid to increase liquidity in London markets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Copernicus also said the world's oceans hit record-high temperatures for a second straight month in July, driven by marine heatwaves around Europe and a powerful El Nino taking shape in the Pacific.
From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026
But it was all a lot less dramatic than the blasting eruptions of the past month or so.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
And this year’s El Niño could be similarly powerful in a matter of months.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
When Brooks heard what Murrill was trying to do, five months after he’d filed his claim, he said he was flooded with anger and disbelief.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
"The leak has been there for two to three months and no-one seems to be doing anything about it," she said.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
It took Cameron and Hannah Zirpolo five months, nearly 15 open houses, and six offers to buy a house in Peabody, Mass.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
He had graduated from the university two years before and was now in his last months of theological school.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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.
