month
Americannoun
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months
plural
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Also called calendar month. any of the twelve parts, as January or February, into which the calendar year is divided.
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the time from any day of one calendar month to the corresponding day of the next.
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a period of four weeks or 30 days.
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Also called solar month. one-twelfth of a solar or tropical year.
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Also called lunar month. the period of a complete revolution of the moon around the earth, as the period between successive new moons synodic month, equal to 29.531 days, or the period between successive conjunctions with a star sidereal month, equal to 27.322 days, or the period between successive perigees anomalistic month, equal to 27.555 days, or the period between successive similar nodes nodical month, or draconic month, equal to 27.212 days.
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an unusually long period of time of indefinite length.
I haven't seen him for months.
idioms
noun
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one of the twelve divisions ( calendar months ) of the calendar year
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a period of time extending from one date to a corresponding date in the next calendar month
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a period of four weeks or of 30 days
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the period of time ( tropical month ) taken by the moon to return to the same longitude after one complete revolution around the earth; 27.321 58 days (approximately 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 4.5 seconds)
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the period of time ( sidereal month ) taken by the moon to make one complete revolution around the earth, measured between two successive conjunctions with a distant star; 27.321 66 days (approximately 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 11 seconds)
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Also called: lunation. the period of time ( lunar or synodic month ) taken by the moon to make one complete revolution around the earth, measured between two successive new moons; 29.530 59 days (approximately 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 3 seconds)
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informal a long unspecified period
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of month
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English mōnath; cognate with Old High German mānōd, Old Norse mānathr. See moon
Explanation
A year is divided into twelve months, starting with January and ending with December. If it takes you a month to read a book, it takes approximately thirty days. A month is a unit of time that corresponds to the phases of the moon — which is the reason the word month, which comes from the Proto-Germanic menoth, is closely related to the word moon, whose root is menon. People have kept track of days this way since Paleolithic times, and even those who don't use the Gregorian, twelve-month calendar, still divide a year into months based on the moon.
Vocabulary lists containing month
Space Science (Astronomy) - Introductory
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Earth and the Solar System - Middle School
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Earth and the Solar System - Introductory
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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:
That same month, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google's YouTube negligent in the case of a 20-year-old woman who said she became hooked on social media as a child, awarding her $6 million.
From Barron's ● Sep. 25, 2026
When I get paid once a month, I pay my rent for the month and stock up on food, so I have a place to sleep and enough to eat.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
The WSJ’s Isabella Simonetti writes that Amazon, already one of the world’s biggest robot makers, last month announced plans to construct another robotics hub in Austin, Texas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
But earlier this month, after about two hours of evidence on Scotland's rail services, Stevenson asked: "I take it Transport Scotland is a registered charity?"
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
Other times, the test comes back negative, only to return positive the following month.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
In the second quarter of 2026, a record 36.5% of all financed new-vehicle buyers signed a loan of 73 months — more than six years — or longer, according to Edmunds data.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
The proportion of distributed enterprises that experienced a cyberattack in the past 12 months, according to new research from VikingCloud.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
Three months before Princess Diana agreed to marry Prince Charles, the Sunday Mirror published the “Royal Train Scandal” exposé.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
In recent months, the BBC has announced a series of closures of jobs and programmes including Blankety Blank, Celebrity Mastermind, Live At The Apollo and Football Focus, and further cuts are expected.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
“I can’t abide staying here, worrying. It’ll be months with no word. Not knowing if you’re hurt. Or dead. Not one”—she looks at me—“but maybe both of you lost. Beyond my care.”
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
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.
