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.

• 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.

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

   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.

3. (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.

• bimester
• trimester
• quadrimester
• semester
• year

• calendar
• day
• time
• week
• year

month

1. alternative form of moneth