month

[muhnth]

noun

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

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

a period of four weeks or 30 days.

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

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.

an unusually long period of time of indefinite length: I haven't seen him for months.

Idioms

a month of Sundays. Sunday¹(def 4).

Origin of month

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for months

point, generation, past, second, turn, space, life, season, moment, date, day, present, stage, term, age, pace, while, future, era, occasion

Examples from the Web for months

Contemporary Examples of months

As part of that effort, Said received weapons training for months, sources told The Daily Beast.
U.S. Spies See Al Qaeda Fingerprints on Paris Massacre
Shane Harris, Nancy A. Youssef
January 8, 2015
What 15 months in a federal correction institution will be like, according to a man who counsels to-be inmates.
How a ‘Real Housewife’ Survives Prison: ‘I Don’t See [Teresa Giudice] Having a Cakewalk Here’
Michael Howard
January 6, 2015
All the slots for arrivals and departures are allocated months in advance.
Annoying Airport Delays Might Prevent You From Becoming the Next AirAsia 8501
Clive Irving
January 6, 2015
As the months passed and she began to cast the film, I became increasingly excited.
Dr. King Goes to Hollywood: The Flawed History of ‘Selma’
Gary May
January 2, 2015
Tony Shalhoub, Act One Sometimes you realize the power of a performance only when it remains in your mind many months later.
Hedwig, Hugh & Michael Cera: 12 Powerhouse Theater Performances of 2014
Janice Kaplan
December 31, 2014

Historical Examples of months

After some months, he met Mrs. Rushton in the street one day.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger
For months I had received daily and hourly the most signal benefits from his hands.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327
Various
They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away.
United States Presidents' Inaugural Speeches
Various
Weeks came and went, months rolled away, and she appeared not in them.
The Vision of the Fountain (From "Twice Told Tales")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Yet night after night, for weeks and months, she thought, and cried herself to sleep.
Life and Death of Harriett Frean
May Sinclair

British Dictionary definitions for months

month

noun

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

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

a period of four weeks or of 30 days

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)

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)

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)

a month of Sundays informal a long unspecified period

Related formsRelated adjective: mensal

Word Origin for month

Old English mōnath; related to Old High German mānōd, Old Norse mānathr; compare Gothic mena moon

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

Word Origin and History for months

month

Old English monað, from Proto-Germanic *menoth- (cf. Old Saxon manoth, Old Frisian monath, Middle Dutch manet, Dutch maand, Old High German manod, German Monat, Old Norse manaðr, Gothic menoþs "month"), related to *menon- "moon" (see moon (n.); the month was calculated from lunar phases). Its cognates mean only "month" in the Romance languages, but in Germanic generally continue to do double duty. Phrase a month of Sundays "a very long time" is from 1832 (roughly 7 and a half months, but never used literally).

Idioms and Phrases with months

month

In addition to the idiom beginning with month

month of Sundays, a

also see:

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