lustrum
Americannoun
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lustrums,
plural
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lustra
plural
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a period of five years.
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Roman History. a lustration or ceremonial purification of the people, performed every five years, after the taking of the census.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of lustrum
First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin lūstrum; cf. luster 1
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.
See Examples For:
Yet his huge mike-and-movie success is less than a lustrum old.
From Time Magazine Archive
More appropriate seemed the second but obscure meaning of lustrum: a period of five years.
From Time Magazine Archive
Spanish scurriers to dictionaries were intrigued and mystified by the primary meaning of lustrum: a Latin word signifying the festival at which Romans purified themselves by sacrificing to the Gods many a pig, sheep, bull.
From Time Magazine Archive
On September 15, 1928, Dictator de Rivera will have been in power for one whole lustrum.
From Time Magazine Archive
Nor had this lustrum of fierce contention wrought less upon his heart and intellect.
From The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce — Volume 2: In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians by Bierce, Ambrose
All the sunny glow of the great Roman's genius seems reflected in this revival of his sentiments, albeit under varying physical conditions, well-nigh three hundred and fifty lustra afterwards.
From Allan Ramsay Famous Scots Series by Smeaton, William Henry Oliphant
Thus passed away two lustra of her life, and as yet my daughter remained nameless upon the earth.
From The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 3 by Poe, Edgar Allan
This led to the computation of time amongst the Romans, by lustra, or periods of five years.
From Domestic Pleasures, or, the Happy Fire-side by Vaux, Frances Bowyer
He accepted of the tribunitian power for life, but more than once chose a colleague in that office for two lustra 147 successively.
From The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius Tranquillus, Gaius
They counted their eras and ages which they put in their books by groups of twenty years and by lustra of four years.
From History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Hard University. Vol. VII. by Means, Philip Ainsworth
In the evolution of the Spanish government the stages will be counted by lustrums.
From Time Magazine Archive
Forty-seven; I'll no' deny it, Lundie; and if I get Mabel, there'll be just a wife for every twa lustrums.
From Pathfinder; or, the inland sea by Cooper, James Fenimore
Dost thou not envy that smirk young knave with his five lustrums, though it goes hard with him to purchase his kid-gloves?
From The Bertrams by Trollope, Anthony
It was enough for them, that they were to live asunder two whole years; and two whole years appear like an age to those who have not yet lived their four lustrums.
From The Crater by Cooper, James Fenimore
Two presidential lustrums of Grant and one of Hayes had erased from the hearts of men the burning sensations of impeachment.
From The Life of Lyman Trumbull by White, Horace
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.
