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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bissextile

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 John F. Blake

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 Charles Duke Yonge

Hence, it is necessary to suppress the bissextile day at the end of every century which is not divisible by 400, while it is retained at the end of those which are divisible by 400.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Noah Webster

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 John F. Blake

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 Henry Ernest Dudeney

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