bissextile
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
noun
Etymology
Origin of bissextile
1585–95; < Late Latin bi ( s ) sextilis ( annus ) leap year, equivalent to bissext ( us ) bissextus + -ilis -ile
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.
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
In the same bissextile year was held the solemn ceremony of piercing the ears of the girls and young men, it being reserved for the high-priest to execute that function, assisted by godfathers and godmothers.
From Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol. I. by Stephens, John L.
So the Pope determined that in each 400 years there should be only 97 bissextile years, instead of 100, as there used to be in the Julian calendar.
From Astronomical Myths Based on Flammarions's History of the Heavens by Blake, John F.
The whole acre divided into four denotes the bissextile period of four years.
From The Ruins, or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires and the Law of Nature by Volney, C.-F. (Constantin-François)
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)
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.
