bissextile

American  

[bahy-seks-til, -tahyl, bih-] / baɪˈsɛks tɪl, -taɪl, bɪ- /

adjective

1. containing or noting the extra day of leap year.

   The years 1980 and 1984 were both bissextile.

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noun

1. leap year.

bissextile British  

/ bɪˈsɛkstaɪl /

adjective

1. (of a month or year) containing the extra day of a leap year

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noun

1. a rare name for leap year

Etymology

Origin of bissextile

1585–95; < Late Latin bi ( s ) sextilis ( annus ) leap year, equivalent to bissext ( us ) bissextus + -ilis -ile

Example Sentences

When an extra day was put in every fourth year before the 24th, this was a second 6th day, and was therefore called bissexto-kalendas, whence we get the name bissextile, applied to leap year.

From Astronomical Myths Based on Flammarions's History of the Heavens by Blake, John F.

This rule of the bissextile year, Rome, which is destined to endure to the end of time, established with the aid of the heavenly Deity.

From The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus During the Reigns of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens by Yonge, Charles Duke

These are subtracted every hundred years by not taking as bissextile those secular years of which the radical is not divisible by four.

From Astronomy for Amateurs by Welby, Frances A. (Frances Alice)

In ordinary years it contains 28 days; but in bissextile or leap year, by the addition of the intercalary day, it consists of 29 days.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 2 "Fairbanks, Erastus" to "Fens" by Various

Every year that can be divided by four without a remainder is bissextile or leap year, with the exception that one leap year is cut off in the century.

From Amusements in Mathematics by Dudeney, Henry Ernest