calends

American  

[kal-uhndz] / ˈkæl əndz /

Or kalends

noun

(usually used with a plural verb)

1. the first day of the month in the ancient Roman calendar, from which the days of the preceding month were counted backward to the ides.

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calends British  

/ ˈkælɪndz /

plural noun

1. the first day of each month in the ancient Roman calendar

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Etymology

Origin of calends

1325–75; Middle English kalendes, alteration (with native plural suffix) of Latin kalendae, perhaps equivalent to cal- (base of calāre to proclaim) + -end- formative suffix (perhaps for *-and- ) + -ae plural ending

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

calends

The festival of Augustus, celebrated on the calends of August, was replaced by that of St Peter in vinculis, established on the 1st of that month.

From A Treatise on Relics by John Calvin

About the calends of July three caravels arrived, bringing provisions––wheat, oil, wine, and salted pork and beef.

From De Orbe Novo, Volume 1 (of 2) The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera by Francis Augustus MacNutt

So adjudged in the year of grace 1174, the third day of the calends of May, seventh indiction.”

From Historia Amoris: A History of Love, Ancient and Modern by Edgar Saltus

The calends were invariably fixed to the first day of each month; the nones came on the 5th or 7th, and the ides the 13th or 15th.

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

From Granada, the ninth of the calends of May of the year 1500.

From De Orbe Novo, Volume 1 (of 2) The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera by Francis Augustus MacNutt