month

• moneth (dialectal)

From Middle English mon(e)th, from Old English mōnaþ, from Proto-West Germanic *mānōþ, from Proto-Germanic *mēnōþs (“month”), from Proto-Indo-European *mḗh₁n̥s (“moon, month”), probably derived from *meh₁- (“measure”) with moon-cycles being used to measure time. Related to moon. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Mound (“month”), Dutch maand (“month”), German Low German Maand (“month”), German Monat (“month”), Swedish månad (“month”), Icelandic mánuður (“month”).

Eclipsed non-native Old English calend (“month”), borrowed from Latin calendae.

• enPR: mŭnth, IPA^(key): /mʌnθ/

  • Audio (Received Pronunciation); “a month”:

    (file)

  • Audio (General American):

    (file)

• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /mʊnt̪/
  • (Dublin) IPA^(key): /mʊnt/
• Rhymes: -ʌnθ

month (plural months or (UK colloquial) month)

1. A period into which a year is divided, historically based on the phases of the moon.

   July is my favourite month.

   • 2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.

3. A period of 30 days, 31 days, or some alternation thereof.

   Alternative forms: mo, mo., mon, mons, m, M (symbols)

   Holonyms: bimester < trimester < quadrimester < semester < year < gigasecond < century < kiloannum, kiloyear, millennium < terasecond < mega-annum, megayear < petasecond < giga-annum, gigayear < exasecond < zettasecond < yottasecond < ronnasecond < quettasecond

   Meronyms: quectosecond < rontosecond < yoctosecond < zeptosecond < attosecond < femtosecond < picosecond < nanosecond < microsecond < millisecond < centisecond < decisecond < second < decasecond < minute < hectosecond < kilosecond < hour < day < week < megasecond < fortnight

   We went on holiday for two months.

   • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:

     Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.

   • 2011 September 29, Jon Smith, “Tottenham 3-1 Shamrock Rovers”, in BBC Sport:

     With the north London derby to come at the weekend, Spurs boss Harry Redknapp opted to rest many of his key players, although he brought back Aaron Lennon after a month out through injury.

   • 2024 February 15, Aishwarya S Iyer and Rhea Mogul, “‘Erasing a part of history’ – What a double mosque demolition tells us about India ahead of crucial election”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     The demolition of two mosques in India within days of each other has highlighted the deep religious divide in the country, months before voters head to the polls for a nationwide election that is expected to hand Prime Minister Narendra Modi a rare third term in power.

4. (obsolete, in the plural) A woman's period; menstrual discharge.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     Sckenkius hath two other instances of two melancholy and mad women, so caused from the suppression of their months.

• calendar

month

1. alternative form of moneth