New Year's Eve

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noun

the night of December 31, often celebrated with merrymaking to usher in the new year at midnight.

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Origin of New Year's Eve

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

Words nearby New Year's Eve

new world order, new wrinkle, new year, New Year's, New Year's Day, New Year's Eve, New York, New York Bay, New York City, New Yorker, New Yorkese

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

MORE ABOUT NEW YEAR'S EVE

What is New Year’s Eve?

New Year’s Eve is December 31, the day before New Year’s Day (January 1).

The term New Year commonly refers to the first day or the first few days of a new year starting on January 1, but it’s also used in the context of the beginnings of years that are based on other calendars, such as a Lunar New Year. For example, the Chinese New Year and the Jewish New Year are both based on lunar calendars. Still, the term New Year’s Eve typically refers to December 31.

The term New Year’s can refer to either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. If someone asks you what you’re doing for New Year’s, they probably want to know what you’re doing on New Year’s Eve.

New Year’s Eve is traditionally a time for parties and counting down to the New Year, though people celebrate in many different ways.

In the U.S., New Year’s Eve is part of what’s known as the holiday season (sometimes called the holidays)—the period that starts on Thanksgiving and continues until New Year’s Day and includes the holidays of Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa.

Example: I like to have a low-key New Year’s Eve—I just stay in and cook a nice meal and usually fall asleep before midnight.

Where does New Year’s Eve come from?

The first records of the term New Year’s Eve come from the 1300s. In New Year’s Eve, the word eve refers to the day or night before a holiday, as in the night before New Year’s Day (the term is used in the same way in Christmas Eve to distinguish it from Christmas Day).

When the clock changes from 11:59 p.m. on December 31 to midnight on January 1, New Year’s Eve becomes New Year’s Day and a new year begins—the New Year. Often, when people ask you what you’re doing for New Year’s Eve, they want to know what you’ll be doing at this exact time.

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How is New Year’s Eve used in real life?

New Year’s Eve is commonly known as a night of celebration to ring in the New Year, but people observe it many different ways—and sometimes not at all.

Love spending New Year's Eve at home with family. 100% my fav. :-)

— HRob (@haannnnaah_r) January 1, 2014

What you didnt know you needed… A timelapse of Times Square New Year's Eve 2019. The speed of the clear out after is amazing. #NYE2019 #TimesSquare pic.twitter.com/Zw87CySn8p

— Regina Hicks (@reginaYhicks) January 2, 2020

Day after Thanksgiving-Dec 23: Christmas season
Dec 24: Christmas Eve
Dec 25: Christmas Day
Dec 26-30: Every day feels like a Sunday
Dec 31: New Year's Eve
Jan 1: New Year's Day
Jan 2: Reality hits

— Elizabeth Faddis (Libby) (@elfaddis) December 7, 2020

Try using New Year’s Eve!

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How to use New Year's Eve in a sentence

Justice Amy Coney Barrett mentioned Times Square on New Year's Eve.
Majority of Supreme Court appears to think N.Y. gun law is too restrictive|Robert Barnes, Ann Marimow|November 3, 2021|Washington Post
Just 7 percent of Americans intend to go to a restaurant for New Year's Eve, according to a Morning Consult survey, while the most common plans were to cook dinner at home or stream a movie.
Drugmakers plan to raise prices in new year to make up for pandemic-related declines||December 31, 2020|Washington Post
But the enemy of the new emirs is neither the Jew nor the Christian, it is the godless militant defending secularism.
Houellebecq’s Incendiary Novel Imagines France With a Muslim President|Pierre Assouline|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
However, more than 20 players on the ballot this year were probably worthy of being enshrined in Cooperstown.
Conservative Curt Says His Politics, Not His Pitching, Kept Him Out of the Hall of Fame|Ben Jacobs|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST

The influential al Qaeda propagandist, who was born in New Mexico, died in a U.S. drone strike later that year.
France Kills Charlie Hebdo Murderers|Nico Hines|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Eric Garcetti succeeded Villaraigosa and has received high marks in his first year and a half on the job.
The Golden State Preps for the ‘Red Wedding’ of Senate Races|David Freedlander|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Back in New York, the slow pace and inward focus of her yoga practice was less fulfilling.
How Taryn Toomey’s ‘The Class’ Became New York’s Latest Fitness Craze|Lizzie Crocker|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Descending the Alps to the east or south into Piedmont, a new world lies around and before you.
Glances at Europe|Horace Greeley
Here began indeed, in the drab surroundings of the workshop, in the silent mystery of the laboratory, the magic of the new age.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock
Joe looked at her with a smile, his face still solemn and serious for all its youth and the fires of new-lit hope behind his eyes.
The Bondboy|George W. (George Washington) Ogden
In the year of misery, of agony and suffering in general he had endured, he had settled upon one theory.
The Homesteader|Oscar Micheaux
There seems something in that also which I could spare only very reluctantly from a new Bible in the world.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

British Dictionary definitions for New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve

noun

the evening of Dec 31, often celebrated with partiesSee also Hogmanay

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