leap year
UK/ˈliːp ˌjɪə//ˈlip ˌjɪ(ə)ɹ/
leap year noun: a year in the Julian or Gregorian calendar with an intercalary day added to February (in the Gregorian calendar, February 29), used to adjust for the extra hours of the solar year; a 366-day year.
Noun
leap year (plural leap years)
- A year in the Julian or Gregorian calendar with an intercalary day added to February (in the Gregorian calendar, February 29), used to adjust for the extra hours of the solar year; a 366-day year.
- The additional day which occurred every fourth year [after the Julian Reform] was given to February, as being the shortest month, and was inserted in the calendar between the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth day. February having then twenty-nine days, the twenty-fifth was the sixth of the calends of...1842, “CALENDAR”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica or Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature. […], 7th edition, volume VI, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, →OCLC, page 5, column 2
- Synonyms:
- bissext, bissextile, bissextile year, intercalary year
- Any other year featuring intercalation, such as a year in a lunisolar calendar with 13 months instead of 12, used to maintain its alignment with the seasons of the solar year.
leap year meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
leap year in Hindi
- year in the Julian or Gregorian calendars with an intercalary day added to February
- अधिवर्ष adhivarṣ, लीप वर्ष līp varṣ
leap year in Tamil
- மிகுநாள் ஆண்டு, நெட்டாண்டு
leap year in Urdu
- year in the Julian or Gregorian calendars with an intercalary day added to February
- سال کبیسہ sāl-e kabīsā
leap year in Malayalam
- leap year
- അധിവർഷം adhivaṟṣaṁ
More languagesFewer languages
- leap year in Kannada
- ಅಧಿಕ ವರ್ಷ, ಅಧಿಕ ವರುಷ
- leap year in Pashto
- د کبيسې کال
- leap year in Tagalog
- taong bisyesto
- leap year in Arabic
- سَنَة كَبِيسَة
- leap year in Malay
- tahun lompat
- leap year in Indonesian
- tahun kabisat
- leap year in Persian
- سال انباشته sâl-e anbâšte, سال کبیسه sâl-e kabise
- leap year in Thai
- ปีอธิกมาส, ปีอธิกสุรทิน
- leap year in Vietnamese
- năm nhuận, năm nhuần
- leap year in Myanmar
- ရက်ထပ်နှစ် rakhtaphnac
Synonyms of leap year
- bissext
- bissextile
- bissextile year
- intercalary year
Forms of leap year
| plural | leap years |
|---|---|
| alternative form | leapyear |
Origin of leap year
PIE word *yóh₁r̥ From Late Middle English lepe-yer, lep-yer (“year with 366 days, leap year”), from lep, lepe (“act of jumping, jump, leap”) (from Old English hlīep, hlȳp, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *klewp- (“to spring; to stumble”)) + yer (“calendrical unit based on a complete revolution of the Earth around the Sun, year”) (from Old English ġēar, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year”)). The English term is analysable as leap (noun) + year, and possibly relates to the phenomenon that any fixed date of a 365-day calendar advances one weekday each year but every date of a 366-day year after February 29 (often seen as the leap day) advances by two weekdays instead. For example, Christmas (December 25) fell on a Saturday in 2004, a Sunday in 2005, a Monday in 2006, and a Tuesday in 2007 but then “leapt” over Wednesday to fall on a Thursday in 2008 which was a leap year. Compare also Old English mōnan hlȳp (“moon’s leap”) and Medieval Latin saltus lūnae (literally “leap moon”), an additional day added every 19 years (a Metonic cycle) to bring the lunar and solar calendars into alignment. Cognates * Old Norse hlaup-ár (“leap year”)
Words formed from leap year
Questions about leap year
- What does leap year mean?
- Leap year means a year in the Julian or Gregorian calendar with an intercalary day added to February (in the Gregorian calendar, February 29), used to adjust for the extra hours of the solar year; a 366-day year.
- What is leap year in Hindi?
- Leap year in Hindi is अधिवर्ष (adhivarṣ), लीप वर्ष (līp varṣ). See Leap year meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is leap year?
- Leap year is a noun.
- How do you pronounce leap year?
- Leap year is pronounced /ˈliːp ˌjɪə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of leap year?
- The plural of leap year is leap years.
Words near leap year in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: leap year (page history and authors); leap year (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); അധിവർഷം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); leap year (Kannada Wiktionary) (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)-Persent101-leap year.wav.
Cite this entry: “leap year.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leap_year. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.