leap year

American  

noun

• leap years
  plural

1. (in the Gregorian calendar) a year that contains 366 days, with February 29 as an additional day: occurring in years whose last two digits are evenly divisible by four, except for centenary years not divisible by 400.

2. a year containing an extra day or extra month in any calendar.

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leap year British  

noun

1. a calendar year of 366 days, February 29 ( leap day ) being the additional day, that occurs every four years (those whose number is divisible by four) except for century years whose number is not divisible by 400. It offsets the difference between the length of the solar year (365.2422 days) and the calendar year of 365 days

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• leap years
  plural

Etymology

Origin of leap year

1350–1400; Middle English lepe yere

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

leap year

In a leap year, it generally falls on 20 June.

From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026

The extra accrued time results in Feb. 29 appearing on the calendar every fourth year — leap year — to help the seasons line up.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2024

But even this system was flawed, because the quarter of a day that leap year adds annually is a bit longer than the solar year’s leftover 0.242 day.

From National Geographic ● Feb. 26, 2024

It remains in use today and, clearly, isn’t perfect or there would be no need for leap year.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 24, 2024

As this method was clumsy, , Euergetes—very possibly at the advice of his new librarian— proposed a simpler four-year cycle with three years consisting of 365 days each, plus a leap year of 366 days.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro