year
A1Neutral, used across all registers from formal to informal.
Definition
Meaning
A period of 365 days (or 366 in a leap year), constituting the time the Earth takes to orbit the Sun, used as a standard unit of time for calendrical, social, and historical measurement.
Any similar period of about the same duration (e.g., the academic year, financial year); a period in life or history marked by a particular quality or event; a group of students entering an institution in the same academic cycle.
Linguistics
Semantic Notes
Primarily a count noun. Can refer to both a specific calendrical period (2024) and a duration (three years). Often personified in expressions (e.g., 'the year saw many changes').
Dialectal Variation
British vs American Usage
Differences
Institutional year names differ: BrE 'Year 10', AmE '10th grade'. Financial year: BrE 'the financial year' often ends April 5th; AmE 'the fiscal year' often ends September 30th. Spelling: BrE 'per year', AmE 'a year' (in frequency, e.g., 'twice a year' is more common in both).
Connotations
BrE 'school year' strongly implies September start. AmE 'school year' implies August/September start. 'New Year' capitalised more consistently in BrE when referring to the festival.
Frequency
No significant frequency difference. Collocational preferences vary slightly (e.g., 'leap year' equally common; 'calendar year' slightly more frequent in AmE business contexts).
Vocabulary
Collocations
Grammar
Valency Patterns
[number] year(s) old[possessive] [ordinal] yearfor [number] year(s)in [year number]during the year [of]a year of [noun]year after yearVocabulary
Synonyms
Strong
Neutral
Weak
Vocabulary
Antonyms
Phrases
Idioms & Phrases
- “year in, year out”
- “never in a million years”
- “years young (euphemistic)”
- “the year dot (BrE)”
- “ring in the new year”
- “put years on someone”
- “take years off someone”
Usage
Context Usage
Business
Used in financial reporting ('fiscal year', 'year-on-year growth', 'year-end results').
Academic
Denotes academic cycles ('the academic year 2024-25'), duration of study ('a three-year degree'), or historical periods ('during the war years').
Everyday
The most common unit for discussing age, plans, anniversaries, and recent/past events ('last year we went to Spain').
Technical
In astronomy: 'tropical year', 'sidereal year'. In demographics: 'person-years'. In law: 'year and a day rule'.
Examples
By Part of Speech
adverb
British English
- The centre is open year round.
- Prices are fixed yearly.
American English
- The center is open year-round.
- Prices are fixed yearly.
adjective
British English
- The year-long project was finally completed.
- We're aiming for year-on-year improvement.
American English
- The yearlong project was finally completed.
- We're aiming for year-over-year improvement.
Examples
By CEFR Level
- I am ten years old.
- Last year was very cold.
- My birthday is next year.
- She lived in Paris for three years.
- The school year starts in September.
- We haven't seen them in years.
- Year on year, the company's profits have increased by 5%.
- It took him the best part of a year to recover fully.
- The fiscal year ends on the last day of March.
- The data shows a year-over-year decline in consumer confidence.
- He's a freshman, so he's in his first year of university.
- The statute has a year-and-a-day rule for prosecuting certain offences.
Learning
Memory Aids
Mnemonic
Think of 'YEAR' as 'Your Earth's Annual Revolution' to remember it's tied to Earth's orbit.
Conceptual Metaphor
TIME IS A RESOURCE ('spending a year', 'wasting a year', 'investing years'); TIME IS MOTION ('the years flew by', 'coming years'); YEARS ARE CONTAINERS ('in the year 2020', 'within a year').
Watch out
Common Pitfalls
Translation Traps (for Russian speakers)
- Avoid using 'year' for 'age' directly. English: 'He is 10 years old.' Not: *'He has 10 years.'
- Remember preposition use: 'in 1990', 'for three years', NOT 'on' or other prepositions.
- Distinguish 'this year' (этот год) from 'this year' meaning 'currently' (в этом году).
Common Mistakes
- *'I am 20 years' (missing 'old').
- *'on 2024' (use 'in 2024').
- *'a 5-years-old child' (hyphenated adjective is singular: 'a 5-year-old child').
- Confusing 'last year' (прошлый год) with 'past year' (последние 12 месяцев).
Practice
Quiz
Which phrase means 'continuously for many years'?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
It is always 'a year' because the word 'year' starts with a consonant sound /j/.
A calendar year runs from January 1 to December 31. A fiscal year is any 12-month period a company or government uses for accounting, often not aligned with the calendar.
'Year' begins with a /j/ sound (like 'yes'). 'Ear' begins with a vowel sound. Practice: 'year' /jɪər/ has a slight 'y' sound at the start; 'ear' /ɪər/ does not.
No. In compound adjectives before a noun, the unit remains singular: 'a five-year project', 'a ten-year-old boy'.
Collections
Part of a collection
Numbers and Time
A1 · 50 words · Numbers, dates, days and expressions of time.