leap year
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leap year
- /ˈliːp ˌjɪə/ UK
- /ˈlip ˌjɪ(ə)ɹ/ US
Where it comes from
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”)
noun leap years · leapyear
-
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 M
Similar: 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.
Translations
Every language
noun year in the Julian or Gregorian calendars with an intercalary day added to February
| Español | año bisiesto, bisiesto |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 윤년 yunnyeon |
| 日本語 | 閏年 |
| 中文 | 閏年 /闰年 rùnnián |
| हिन्दी | अधिवर्ष adhivarṣ, लीप वर्ष līp varṣ |
| Português | ano bissexto |
| Français | année bissextile |
| Deutsch | Schaltjahr |
| Italiano | anno bisestile |
| Ελληνικά | δίσεκτο έτος dísekto étos |
| Română | an bisect, an bisectil |
| Русский | високо́сный год visokósnyj god |
| Tiếng Việt | năm nhuận, năm nhuần |
| العربية | سَنَة كَبِيسَة |
| עברית | שנה מעוברת shaná meubéret |
Talk about this word "leap year." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/leap%20year. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. leap year. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/leap%20year "leap year." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/leap%20year.Cite this
@misc{leap_year_2026,
title = {leap year},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/leap%20year},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
