of or pertaining or appropriate to the Sabbath.
(lowercase) of or relating to a sabbatical year.
(lowercase) bringing a period of rest.
(lowercase) sabbatical year.
(lowercase) any extended period of leave from one's customary work, especially for rest, to acquire new skills or training, etc.
denoting a period of leave granted to university staff, teachers, etc, esp approximately every seventh year
a sabbatical year
sabbatical leave
denoting a post that renders the holder eligible for such leave
First recorded in 1605–15; equivalent to Greek sabbatikós (from sábbat(on) Sabbath + -ikos -ic ) + -al 1
If your job entitles you, you probably take a sabbatical every seven years, which means you get a year of paid leave to do whatever you want to further your understanding of the world. The word sabbatical, which can be a noun or an adjective, comes from the Greek word sabatikos, which means “of the Sabbath,” the day of rest that happens every seventh day. Most teaching jobs come with the promise of a sabbatical, which is a year of not having to teach, though you still get paid. During your sabbatical, you usually are expected to do research and perhaps write a book — in other words, keep working.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She is among leaders of the Sabbatical Project, which aims to create “a more humane relationship with work” by encouraging extended leaves.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 11, 2024
Portions of the work were supported by a Research Sabbatical grant to Gilmore from Research to Prevent Blindness to explore the origins of antibiotic resistance.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 29, 2024
Research by DJ DiDonna, founder of the Sabbatical Project and a senior lecturer at Harvard, found that 80 percent of people who take sabbaticals returned to their company refreshed.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 19, 2023
Sabbatical haze, she adds, her explanation these days for everything.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 26, 2019
But three days later, as we were taking our habitual Sabbatical refection of tea and biscuits, he appeared again, bearing a box of what he calls the only chocolates in New York fit to eat.
From A Top-Floor Idyl by Van Schaick, George
He took a now-famed, two-year sabbatical, practicing up to 14 hours a day outdoors on New York’s Williamsburg Bridge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
The very public sabbatical produced one of his best-known albums, 1962's "The Bridge," and has led to proposals to rename the Williamsburg Bridge in Rollins' honor.
From Barron's ● May 26, 2026
At the time, he was taking a sabbatical from the National Theatre of Scotland in the US and Black Watch, which he'd directed and co-created, was on tour there.
From BBC ● May 24, 2026
In the race for city controller, incumbent Kenneth Mejia will battle it out against Zach Sokoloff, who is on sabbatical from his job as senior vice president of asset management at Hackman Capital Partners.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 14, 2026
It is tempting to regard this latter notation as further evidence that McCandless’s long, lonely sabbatical had changed him in some significant way.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
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.
