month

American  

[muhnth] / mʌnθ /

noun

• months
  plural

1. 

   Also called calendar month. any of the twelve parts, as January or February, into which the calendar year is divided.

2. the time from any day of one calendar month to the corresponding day of the next.

3. a period of four weeks or 30 days.

4. Also called solar month. one-twelfth of a solar or tropical year.

5. 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.

6. an unusually long period of time of indefinite length.

   I haven't seen him for months.

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idioms

1. a month of Sundays. Sunday.

month British  

/ mʌnθ /

noun

1. one of the twelve divisions ( calendar months ) of the calendar year

2. a period of time extending from one date to a corresponding date in the next calendar month

3. a period of four weeks or of 30 days

4. 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)

5. 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)

6. 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)

7. informal a long unspecified period

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month More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing month

• (for months) on end
• by the day (month)

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• months
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of month

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English mōnath; cognate with Old High German mānōd, Old Norse mānathr. See moon

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

month months

Last month, they approved a new North Sea gas field, Jackdaw.

From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2026

Authentic Brands Group and other Presley publishers filed a federal lawsuit against Anthropic last month, claiming it used his songs without permission to train its online agent Claude.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2026

As the New York Times revealed last month, U.S. intelligence agencies believe Huang became romantically entangled with a woman recruited by China’s top spy agency.

From Slate ● Nov. 9, 2026

Litigation over the project heated up after the government told the court in a filing last month that work could begin as early as this week.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2026

Nearly a month of travel, Father’s body is more relaxed.

From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Jackdaw's reserves amount to only a few months of UK gas demand, while Rosebank contains less than a year's worth of our oil consumption.

From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2026

Companies in the S&P 500 recently traded at about 17.7 times projected earnings over the next 12 months, the lowest ratio since November 2023, according to FactSet.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2026

Discovery last month, Ellison’s team has been scouring the vast Skydance portfolio for cuts and efficiencies as executives work to integrate the operations of the two legacy entertainment companies in the coming months.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2026

But that means those of us with short memories will not remember that it wasn’t that many months ago when the prediction markets were forecasting just the opposite.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 9, 2026

They thought they’d be freed within a few weeks, but the weeks have stretched into months.

From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly

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Related Words

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