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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To insert (a day or month) in a calendar.
  2. v. To insert, interpose, or interpolate.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. In chronology, to insert in the calendar by proclamation or authority, as an extra day or month. See intercalary, 1.
  2. Hence To insert between others; introduce interstitially; interject or interpolate, as something irregular or unrelated.

Wiktionary

  1. v. to insert an extra, leap, day into a calendar in order to maintain synchrony with natural phenomena.
  2. v. to insert an extra month into a calendar for the same purpose. The Hebrew calendar has such a month.
  3. v. to insert a substance between two or more molecules, bases, cells, or tissues.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To insert, as a day or other portion of time, in a calendar.
  2. v. To insert among others, as a verse in a stanza; specif. (Geol.), to introduce as a bed or stratum, between the layers of a regular series of rocks.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. insert (days) in a calendar

Etymologies

  1. Latin intercalāre, intercalāt- : inter-, inter- + calāre, to proclaim; see kelə-2 in Indo-European roots.

Examples

  • “I think it is necessary that the indian people, of which I am a member, should contribute with its science and its knowledge to human development because we have enormous potentials and we could intercalate our very ancient heritage with the achievements of the civilization in Europe as well as in other parts of the world.”

    Nobel Lecture

  • “R. Simai and R. Zadok went to intercalate the year in Lydda, and kept the Sabbath in Ono.”

    From the Talmud and Hebraica

  • “They intercalate the year upon three accounts; for the green year, for the fruit of the tree, and for Tekupha.”

    From the Talmud and Hebraica

  • “For thus Maimonides in the place cited: "If the council sees that there is not yet any green ear, and that the fruit of the trees which used to bud at the feast of the Passover is not yet budded [mark that, 'used to bud'], moved by these two causes, they intercalate the year.”

    From the Talmud and Hebraica

  • “A devout disciple learned the intercalation of the year before his master, three years and a half: he came, and intercalated for Galilee: but he could not intercalate for the south," that is, for Judea”

    From the Talmud and Hebraica

  • “Sanhedrim do compute and observe if the vernal equinox will fall out on the sixteenth day of the month Nisan, or beyond that; then they intercalate that year, and they make that Nisan the second Adar; so that the Passover might happen at the time of new corn.”

    From the Talmud and Hebraica

  • “Now if you ask what means the intercalation for the fruit of the tree, the Gloss answers, "If the fruit be not ripened till Pentecost is past, they intercalate the year; because Pentecost is the time of bringing the firstfruits: and if at that time one should not bring them along with him when he comes to the feast, he would be obliged to make another journey.”

    From the Talmud and Hebraica

  • “They do not appoint or determine concerning the new moons, nor do they intercalate the year any where but in the land of Israel: as it is said, The law shall go forth out of Sion.”

    From the Talmud and Hebraica

  • “It does not even appear that the length of the intercalary month was regulated by any certain principle, for a discretionary power was left with the pontiffs, to whom the care of the calendar was committed, to intercalate more or fewer days according as the year was found to differ more or less from the celestial motions.”

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary"

  • “It has been stated by Scaliger, Weidler, Montucla, and others, that the modern Persians actually follow this method, and intercalate eight days in thirty-three [v. 04 p. 0991] years.”

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary"

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