calends
Syllables: ca·lends/ˈkæləndz/US/ˈkælɪndz/
calends noun: often with initial capital: the first day of a month. Also the plural of calend.
Noun
calends pl (plural only)
- Often with initial capital: the first day of a month.
- The third day before the calends of February is 30 January, the third calends of March is 27 or 28 February, and the third of the calends of May is 29 April.
- The Roman Month its ſeveral days divides / By reckoning backwards, Calends, Nones, and Ides.1679, Joseph Moxon, “Calends”, in Mathematicks Made Easie: Or, A Mathematical Dictionary, Explaining the Terms of Art, and Difficult Phrases Used in Arithmetick, Geometry, Astronomy, Astrology, and...
- Synonyms:
- Kal., first calends
- A day for settling debts and other accounts.
- To expedite theſe knots were worthy a learned and memorable Synod; while our enemies expect to ſee the expectation of the Church tir'd out with dependencies and independencies how they will compound, and in what Calends.1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], “To the Parlament of England, with the Assembly”, in The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC
- Synonym of Rosh Hodesh (“the Jewish festival of the new moon, which begins the months of the Hebrew calendar”).
- The feasts of the Israelites were the Sabbath; the first day of each month, called in our translations calends, or new-moon; the three great feasts of the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles, instituted in memory of the three greatest blessings they received from God, […]1809, Claude Fleury, “Their Religion”, in Adam Clarke, transl., The Manners of the Ancient Israelites; […], 3rd edition, London: Sold by William Baynes, […]; J[oseph] Butterworth, […]; and T....
- חֹדֶשׁ m. […] the new moon, the day of the new moon, the calends of a lunar month which was a festival of the ancient Hebrews, Num[bers] 29:6; 1 Sam[uel] 20:5; 18:24; Ex[odus] 19:1, […]1846, [Wilhelm] Gesenius, “חֹדֶשׁ”, in Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, transl., Gesenius’s Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures. Translated, with Additions and Corrections from the...
- Synonyms:
- Rosh Hodesh
- Synonym of calendar; (figurative) an account, a record.
- [N]ow doth [John] Oldcastle shine: / Him for a Saint within your Kalends hold.1601, Jo[hn] Weever, The Mirror of Martyrs, or The Life and Death of that Thrice Valiant Captaine, and Most Godly Martyre Sir Iohn Old-castle Knight Lord Cobham, [London]: Printed by V[alentine]...
- Synonyms:
- calendar
- The first day of something; a beginning.
- Whoever shall sell a calf or a yearling, let him be answerable against the scab from the calends of winter until the Feast of Patrick.1909, A[rthur] W[ade] Wade-Evans, “English Translation of Harleian Ms. 4353 (V) with the Missing Leaves Supplied from Cleopatra A xiv (W)”, in Welsh Medieval Law: Being a Text of the Laws of Howel...
Also used as
calends is also the plural of calend.
calends meaning in Arabic
calends in Arabic
- first day of a month of the Roman calendar
- غُرَّة ḡurra
Examples of calends in a sentence
- The Poſt of ſwift-foot Time / Hath now at length begun / The Calends of our middle Age, / Our bloſſoms they are gone.1729, Richard Burton [pseudonym; Nathaniel Crouch], The Vanity of the Life of Man:
- The Romans did not, as we do, count the days of the month in a regular numerical succession, but reckoned them with reference to three principal points of time—the Calends, the Nones, and Ides.1851, Henry T[homas] Riley, “Introduction. [On the Reckoning of Time among the Romans.]”, in Ovid, translated by Henry T. Riley, The Fasti...
- Let it not be lawful to use wicked observations of the calends, and to keep the gentiles' holy-days, nor to deck houses with bays or green boughs; for all this is an heathenish observation.1852, John Whitgift, “Of the Communion Book. Tract IX. The General Faults Examined wherewith the Public Service is Charged by T[homas]...
- This ceremony took place during the festival known as Carisia, held in honour of the goddess Concord, and was celebrated during the eight days preceding the Calends of March (February 22 to March 1).1911 March, E. C. Vansittart, “Some Roman Festivals and Customs: Ancient and Modern”, in The Antiquary: A Magazine Devoted to the Study of...
Synonyms of calends
- Kal.
- Rosh Hodesh
- calendar
- first calends
Forms of calends
| alternative form | Calends |
|---|---|
| alternative form | calend |
| alternative form | kalends |
Origin of calends
From Middle English calendes, calendas, calendis, kalandes, kalendas, kalendes, kalendez, kalendis, kalendus (also in the singular forms calende, kalend, kalende), from Latin kalendās, accusative plural of kalendae (“first day of a Roman month”), an archaic variant of calandae, from calandus (“which is to be called or announced solemnly”), the future passive participle of calō (“to call, announce solemnly”) (referring to the Roman practice of proclaiming the first days of the lunar month upon seeing the first signs of a new crescent moon), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, cry, summon”). Although the singular form calend (now obsolete, rare) appeared in English (and compare Old English calend, kalendus (“calends; a month”)), no singular form was used in Latin as recurring days of the calendar were always referred to in the plural. Sense 2 (“a day for settling debts and other accounts”) refers to the Roman practice of fixing the calends as the day for debts to be paid.
Words formed from calends
- calends of exchange
- Greek calends
Questions about calends
- What does calends mean?
- Calends means often with initial capital: the first day of a month.
- What is calends in Arabic?
- Calends in Arabic is غُرَّة (ḡurra). See Calends meaning in Arabic.
- How do you use calends in a sentence?
- The Poſt of ſwift-foot Time / Hath now at length begun / The Calends of our middle Age, / Our bloſſoms they are gone.
- What part of speech is calends?
- Calends is a noun.
- How do you pronounce calends?
- Calends is pronounced /ˈkæləndz/ (UK).
Words near calends in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: calends (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-calends.wav.
Cite this entry: “calends.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/calends. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.