Word.ws English Dictionary

septenary

/sɛpˈtiːnəɹi/

septenary adjective: consisting of or containing seven.

Adjective

septenary (not comparable)

  1. Consisting of or containing seven.
  2. Of seventh rank or order.
    • ... indeed if further evidence than that of bestial and savage counting were required to show that finger-numeration and the quinary system were not primeval, it would be afforded by the development of the senary-septenary system in so many lands.1899 October, W J McGee, “The Beginning of Mathematics”, in American Anthropologist, 1(4), page 657
  3. Lasting seven years; continuing seven years.
    • Septenary penance.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)

Noun

septenary (plural septenaries)

  1. A group of seven things.
  2. A period of seven years.
    • This idea was based on the doctrine that a man's body changed its character every seven years and that his life was thus made up of ‘septenaries’.1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 596
  3. The seven notes of the diatonic scale.

septenary meaning in Tamil

septenary in Tamil

ஏழன் தொகுதி

Synonyms of septenary

Forms of septenary

pluralseptenaries

Origin of septenary

From Middle English septenarie, septenary, from Classical Latin septēnārius (“consisting of seven each”), from septēnus (“seven each; seven at a time”) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary). With use as noun compare septēnārius (“line of seven feet; unit of seven parts; period of seven years”). By surface analysis, septen- + -ary. Doublet of septenar and septenarius.

Questions about septenary

What does septenary mean?
Septenary means consisting of or containing seven.
What is septenary in Tamil?
Septenary in Tamil is ஏழன் தொகுதி. See Septenary meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is septenary?
Septenary can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce septenary?
Septenary is pronounced /sɛpˈtiːnəɹi/ (UK).

Words near septenary in the dictionary

  1. septenar
  2. septenaries
  3. septenarii
  4. septenarius
  5. septenars
  6. septenary
  7. septenate
  8. septendecennial
  9. septendecillion
  10. septendecillions
  11. septendecimal

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: septenary (page history and authors); septenary (Tamil 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-septenary.wav.

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