Adjacent Words

Month definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MONTH, n. [L. mensis; Gr. a month, from the moon.] A space or period of time constituting a division of the year. Month originally signified the time of one revolution of the moon, a lunation, or the period from one change or conjunction of the moon with the sun to another, a period of 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes and 5 seconds. This is the periodical month, or as we generally call it, the lunar month. In this sense we still use the word month. But we also apply the term to the space of time in which the sun passes through one sign, or a twelfth part of the zodiac. This period contains 30 days, 10 hours, 29 minutes, 5 seconds, and it called a solar month. In the year, there are twelve solar months, and thirteen lunar months.
In popular language, four weeks are called a month, being nearly the length of the lunar month. A calendar month differs in some degree from a solar month; consisting of twenty eight, twenty nine, thirty or thirty one days, as the months stand in calendars or almanacs.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: one of the twelve divisions of the calendar year; "he paid the bill last month" [syn: calendar month, month]
2: a time unit of approximately 30 days; "he was given a month to pay the bill"

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural months) Etymology: Middle English, from Old English m?nath; akin to Old High German m?n?d month, Old English m?na moon Date: before 12th century 1. a measure of time corresponding nearly to the period of the moon's revolution and amounting to approximately 4 weeks or 30 days or 1/12 of a year 2. plural an indefinite usually extended period of time <he has been gone for months> 3. one ninth of the typical duration of human pregnancy <she was in her eighth month>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 (in full calendar month) a each of usu. twelve periods into which a year is divided. b a period of time between the same dates in successive calendar months. 2 a period of 28 days or of four weeks. 3 = lunar month. Phrases and idioms: month of Sundays a very long period. Etymology: OE monath f. Gmc, rel. to MOON

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Month Month, n. [OE. month, moneth, AS. m[=o]n?, m[=o]na?; akin to m[=o]na moon, and to D. maand month, G. monat, OHG. m[=a]n[=o]d, Icel. m[=a]nu?r, m[=a]na?r, Goth. m[=e]n[=o]?s. [root]272. See Moon.] One of the twelve portions into which the year is divided; the twelfth part of a year, corresponding nearly to the length of a synodic revolution of the moon, -- whence the name. In popular use, a period of four weeks is often called a month. Note: In the common law, a month is a lunar month, or twenty-eight days, unless otherwise expressed. --Blackstone. In the United States the rule of the common law is generally changed, and a month is declared to mean a calendar month. --Cooley's Blackstone. A month mind. (a) A strong or abnormal desire. [Obs.] --Shak. (b) A celebration made in remembrance of a deceased person a month after death. --Strype. Calendar months, the months as adjusted in the common or Gregorian calendar; April, June, September, and November, containing 30 days, and the rest 31, except February, which, in common years, has 28, and in leap years 29. Lunar month, the period of one revolution of the moon, particularly a synodical revolution; but several kinds are distinguished, as the synodical month, or period from one new moon to the next, in mean length 29 d. 12 h. 44 m. 2.87 s.; the nodical month, or time of revolution from one node to the same again, in length 27 d. 5 h. 5 m. 36 s.; the sidereal, or time of revolution from a star to the same again, equal to 27 d. 7 h. 43 m. 11.5 s.; the anomalistic, or time of revolution from perigee to perigee again, in length 27 d. 13 h. 18 m. 37.4 s.; and the tropical, or time of passing from any point of the ecliptic to the same again, equal to 27 d. 7 h. 43 m. 4.7 s. Solar month, the time in which the sun passes through one sign of the zodiac, in mean length 30 d. 10 h. 29 m. 4.1 s.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sidereal Si*de"re*al, a. [L. sidereus, from sidus, sideris, a constellation, a star. Cf. Sideral, Consider, Desire.] 1. Relating to the stars; starry; astral; as, sidereal astronomy. 2. (Astron.) Measuring by the apparent motion of the stars; designated, marked out, or accompanied, by a return to the same position in respect to the stars; as, the sidereal revolution of a planet; a sidereal day. Sidereal clock, day, month, year. See under Clock, Day, etc. Sideral time, time as reckoned by sideral days, or, taking the sidereal day as the unit, the time elapsed since a transit of the vernal equinox, reckoned in parts of a sidereal day. This is, strictly, apparent sidereal time, mean sidereal time being reckoned from the transit, not of the true, but of the mean, equinoctial point.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(months) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. A month is one of the twelve periods of time that a year is divided into, for example January or February. The trial is due to begin next month. ...an exhibition which opens this month at London's Design Museum... I send him fifteen dollars a month. N-COUNT 2. A month is a period of about four weeks. She was here for a month... Over the next several months I met most of her family... ...a month's unlimited train travel. N-COUNT

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Among the Egyptians the month of thirty days each was in use long before the time of the Exodus, and formed the basis of their calculations. From the time of the institution of the Mosaic law the month among the Jews was lunar. The cycle of religious feasts depended on the moon. The commencement of a month was determined by the observation of the new moon. The number of months in the year was usually twelve (1 Kings 4:7; 1 Chr. 27:1-15); but every third year an additional month (ve-Adar) was inserted, so as to make the months coincide with the seasons.

"The Hebrews and Phoenicians had no word for month save 'moon,' and only saved their calendar from becoming vague like that of the Moslems by the interpolation of an additional month. There is no evidence at all that they ever used a true solar year such as the Egyptians possessed. The latter had twelve months of thirty days and five epagomenac or odd days.", Palestine Quarterly, January 1889.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

munth (chodhesh, yerach; men): Chodhesh is strictly the "new moon," the appearance of which marked the beginning of the month, commonly indicated by ro'sh ha-chodhesh. Yerach is derived from yareach, "moon," which comes from the verb that means "to wander," "to make a circuit." Thus the month was lunar, the period of the moon's circuit. The Greek men also meant "moon," from the Sanskrit ma, "to measure," the Latin mensis and our "moon" being derived from the same root.

See CALENDAR; TIME; ASTRONOMY.

Chodhesh, or rather ro'sh ha-chodhesh, was observed as a festival (1Sa 20:5,18,24; Isa 1:14).

H. Porter

Moby Thesaurus

abundant year, academic year, annum, bissextile year, calendar month, calendar year, century, common year, day, decade, decennary, decennium, defective year, fiscal year, fortnight, hour, leap year, lunar month, lunar year, lunation, luster, lustrum, man-hour, microsecond, millennium, millisecond, minute, moment, moon, quarter, quinquennium, regular year, second, semester, session, sidereal year, solar year, sun, term, trimester, twelvemonth, week, weekday, year