Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A unit of time corresponding approximately to one cycle of the moon's phases, or about 30 days or 4 weeks.
  • noun One of the 12 divisions of a year as determined by a calendar, especially the Gregorian calendar.
  • noun A period extending from a date in one calendar month to the corresponding date in the following month.
  • noun A sidereal month.
  • noun A lunar month.
  • noun A solar month.
  • idiom (month of Sundays) An indefinitely long period of time.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Originally, the interval from one new moon to the next, called specifically a lunar, synodical, or illuminative month.
  • noun One twelfth part of a tropical year, or 30 days, 10 hours, 29 minutes, 3. 8 seconds: called specifically a solar month.
  • noun One of the twelve parts into which the calendar year is arbitrarily divided: called specifically a calendar month.
  • noun At common law and in equity, month has been understood to mean ‘a lunar month,’ which is assumed to be 28 days, except when the contrary appears, and except when used of mercantile transactions, such as negotiable paper, etc.
  • noun plural Same as menses. Minsheu; Cotgrave. Abbreviated mo.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun 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.
  • noun [Obs.] A celebration made in remembrance of a deceased person a month after death.
  • noun 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.
  • noun 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.
  • noun 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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A period into which a year is divided, historically based on the phases of the moon. In the Gregorian calendar there are twelve months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December.
  • noun A period of 30 days, 31 days, or some alternation thereof.
  • noun obsolete, in the plural A woman's period; menstrual discharge.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a time unit of approximately 30 days
  • noun one of the twelve divisions of the calendar year

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English moneth, from Old English mōnath; see mē- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English month, moneth, from Old English mōnað ("month"), from Proto-Germanic *mēnōþs (“month”), from Proto-Indo-European *mḗh₁n̥s (“moon, month”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *mê- (“to measure”), referring to the moon's phases as the measure of time, equivalent to moon +‎ -th. Cognate with Scots moneth ("month"); North Frisian muunt ("month"); Dutch maand ("month"); Low German Maand, Monat ("month"); German Monat ("month"); Danish måned ("month"); Swedish månad ("month"); Icelandic mánuði ("month"); Ancient Greek μήν (mḗn); Armenian ամիս (amis); Old Irish ; Old Church Slavonic мѣсѧць (měsęcĭ). See also moon.

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Examples

  • • British dead and wounded in Afghanistan, month by month• Get the Afghan civilian casualties data

    Afghanistan civilian casualties: year by year, month by month 2010

  • I sent an email to the library, explaining that I had had some books for about 5 months now - the first month, 3 renewals and now it was a month+ over-due March, 20, actually - but could I please keep them until June?

    A rather lousy day. magnio 2006

  • That doesn't count all the permanent population on Council Tax assistance (the junior printer at my last job, who lived in a council flat (rent: £10 a month) with his girlfriend and baby paid only £20 a month*), and other benefits.

    Archive 2005-10-01 2005

  • That doesn't count all the permanent population on Council Tax assistance (the junior printer at my last job, who lived in a council flat (rent: £10 a month) with his girlfriend and baby paid only £20 a month*), and other benefits.

    Council Tax 2005

  • The presidential office and the ruling Grand National Party have agreed to open a parliamentary session late this month to deliberate bills that failed to pass in last month� extra National Assembly session.

    unknown title 2009

  • How It Works The script gets the value for variable $month by tapping into one of PHP's numerous built-in date func - tions; date ( "n") returns a value equal to the numerical equivalent of the month as set in your server, such as 1 for January, 2 for February, and so on.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows Bravo77 2009

  • year = $year, month = $month, day = $day, time_zone = ‘UTC’

    January « 2010 « everything e-diotic 2010

  • year = $year, month = $month, day = $day, time_zone = ‘UTC’

    Running the marathon running planning script « everything e-diotic 2010

  • year = $year, month = $month, day = $day, time_zone = ‘UTC’

    18 « January « 2010 « everything e-diotic 2010

  • • 81.4 per cent of creative professionals that have used an image without paying for it did not feel guilty• 44 per cent legally download between one and five pictures each month, while seven per cent buy more than 11 stock images each month• Nearly half (48 per cent) do not have a microstock image budget but five per cent spend in excess of

    The Earth Times Online Newspaper 2009

Comments

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  • Month rhymes with no other word.

    May 31, 2007

  • eOE ÆLFRED tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Otho) v. 12 Thonne edhære sunnan scima on Agustes monedhe hatost scinedh edhonne dysegaedh se edhe thonne wile hwelc sæd oedhfæstan thæm drygum furum.

    May 11, 2008

  • 'Of all our many English rhymes,

    There's none, they say, for month.

    I've tried and failed a hundred times,

    Then made it the hundred-and-oneth.'

    (Quoted from memory, and I can't remember the source. And yes, hundred-and-first would be the expected construction, so it is cheating, a bit.)

    January 11, 2009