Word.ws English Dictionary

duodecennial

UK/ˌdjuːəʊdɪˈsɛnɪəl/US/ˌduːoʊdɪˈsɛnɪəl/

duodecennial adjective: consisting of twelve years, occurring in 12-year cycles.

Adjective

duodecennial (not comparable)

  1. Consisting of twelve years, occurring in 12-year cycles.
    • The duodecennial Chinese zodiac originated from Chinese and Indian observations of the duodecennial cycle of the Jovian orbit.
  2. Occurring once a duodecade, occurring every 12 years.
    • The concept of a duodecennial "Jupiter return" in Western astrology arose from similar concerns.

Origin of duodecennial

From Latin duodecennium (“12-year period”) + English -al (“forming adjs”), equivalent to borrowing the unattested duodecennialis.

Questions about duodecennial

What does duodecennial mean?
Duodecennial means consisting of twelve years, occurring in 12-year cycles.
What part of speech is duodecennial?
Duodecennial is an adjective.
How do you pronounce duodecennial?
Duodecennial is pronounced /ˌduːoʊdɪˈsɛnɪəl/ (US).

Words near duodecennial in the dictionary

  1. duodecasyllable
  2. duodecasyllables
  3. Duodecember
  4. duodecemvir
  5. duodecemvirate
  6. duodecennial
  7. duodecet
  8. duodecets
  9. duodecic
  10. duodecillion
  11. duodecillions

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: duodecennial (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.

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Cite this entry: “duodecennial.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/duodecennial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.