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years - 2 dictionary results

year

  [yeer]
Use years in a Sentence
–noun
1. a period of 365 or 366 days, in the Gregorian calendar, divided into 12 calendar months, now reckoned as beginning Jan. 1 and ending Dec. 31 (calendar year or civil year). Compare common year, leap year.
2. a period of approximately the same length in other calendars.
3. a space of 12 calendar months calculated from any point: This should have been finished a year ago.
4. Astronomy.
a. Also called lunar year. a division of time equal to 12 lunar months.
b. Also called astronomical year, equinoctial year, solar year, tropical year. a division of time equal to about 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, representing the interval between one vernal equinox and the next.
c. Also called sidereal year. a division of time equal to the equinoctial year plus 20 minutes, representing the time required for the earth to complete one revolution around the sun, measured with relation to the fixed stars. Compare anomalistic year.
5. the time in which any planet completes a revolution round the sun: the Martian year.
6. a full round of the seasons.
7. a period out of every 12 months, devoted to a certain pursuit, activity, or the like: the academic year.
8. years,
a. age.
b. old age: a man of years.
c. time; period: the years of hardship and frustration.
d. an unusually long period of time of indefinite length: I haven't spoken to them in years.
9. a group of students entering school or college, graduating, or expecting to graduate in the same year; class.
—Idioms
10. a year and a day, a period specified as the limit of time in various legal matters, as in determining a right or a liability, to allow for a full year by any way of counting.
11. from the year one, for a very long time; as long as anyone remembers: He's been with the company from the year one.
12. year in and year out, regularly through the years; continually: Year in and year out they went to Florida for the winter. Also, year in, year out.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME yeer, OE gēar; c. D jaar, G Jahr, ON ār, Goth jēr, Gk hôros year, hrā season, part of a day, hour
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To years
year   (yîr)   
n.  
    1. The period of time during which Earth completes a single revolution around the sun, consisting of 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 12 seconds of mean solar time. In the Gregorian calendar the year begins on January 1 and ends on December 31 and is divided into 12 months, 52 weeks, and 365 or 366 days. Also called calendar year.
    2. A period approximately equal to a year in other calendars.
    3. A period of approximately the duration of a calendar year: We were married a year ago.
  2. A sidereal year.
  3. A solar year.
  4. A period equal to the calendar year but beginning on a different date: a tax-reckoning year; a farming year.
  5. A specific period of time, usually shorter than 12 months, devoted to a special activity: the academic year.
  6. years Age, especially old age: I'm feeling my years.
  7. years An indefinitely long period of time: it's been years since we saw her.

[Middle English yere, from Old English gēar; see yēr- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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