Definitions

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

  • noun A period or term of three months.
  • noun One of three terms into which an academic year is divided in some universities and colleges.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A term or period of three months.

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

  • noun A term or period of three months.

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

  • noun A period of three months or about three months.
  • noun One of the terms of an academic year in those learning institutions that divide their teaching in three roughly equal terms, each about three months long. Compare semester.

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

  • noun one of three divisions of an academic year
  • noun a period of three months; especially one of the three three-month periods into which human pregnancy is divided

Etymologies

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

[French trimestre, from Latin trimēstris, trimēnstris, of three months : tri-, tri- + mēnsis, month; see mē- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French trimestre < from Latin trimestris ("of three months"), from trēs ("three") + mensis ("month").

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