year

year [ jır ] noun ***

1. ) count a period of 365 days, or 366 in a leap year, divided into 12 months:

He lived in Paris for a few years.

a ) used about a particular period of time, beginning on January 1 and ending on December 31, or between the first and last dates on some other CALENDAR:

We're hoping to sell the house by the end of the year.

last/next year (=the year before or after the present year): Profits are lower than last year.

b ) used about the period during which an institution operates, or about the system it uses for dividing time:

the financial/fiscal/tax year: a budget for the fiscal year 2002

the first weeks of the new school year

c ) used for talking about age:

Their son is only five years old.

d ) years of age VERY FORMAL used for talking about someone's age:

How can a child of only twelve years of age be expected to know?

2. ) years plural used about a particular period of time in history:

Conditions were very different in the postwar years (=the period after the war).

a ) a very long time:

It wasn't until years later that I realized how foolish I'd been.

for years: He hasn't been back to the country for years.

3. ) count TECHNICAL the amount of time that a planet takes to travel around the sun

a first/second/third etc. year BRITISH

a student who is in their first/second/third etc. year at a school or university

not/never in a million years INFORMAL

used for emphasizing that you think something will not happen or is not true

something puts years on someone INFORMAL

used for saying that something makes someone seem or feel much older

year after year

continuously for several years

year by year

as time passes

year on year BRITISH

used for talking about situations in which something continues to change or develop every year