bissextile

American

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

adjective

containing or noting the extra day of leap year.

The years 1980 and 1984 were both bissextile.

noun

leap year.

bissextile British

/ bɪˈsɛkstaɪl /

adjective

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

a rare name for leap year

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

The second after Bissextile or leap year, and the eighteenth year of the Reign of his Majesty King George III.

From Literary Byways by Andrews, William

Yet such was the prevalence of ancient superstition, that a whole day was voluntarily added to this dangerous interval, because it happened to be the intercalation of the Bissextile.

From History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2 by Milman, Henry Hart

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023