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New Year's

New Year's

197 1.0
The first day of the year when people celebrate with parties and fireworks
  • noun
  • /nuː jɪrz/
translation icon : Año Nuevo
  • A presentation made on Thursday, New Year's Day, ultimately overshadowed all other events at the meeting.
  • New Year's Day
  • New Year's Eve
  • New Year's resolutions

Examples

  • Wondering how she was spending her New Year's night out in California.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Jed is having a slumber party on New Year's Eve, and he invited me.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • The week between Christmas and New Year's Day, the letters stopped coming.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • You know that work contracts are signed on New Year's Day for the year to follow.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Last time we saw anything like this was at the Rose Bowl Parade last New Year's.

  • It's the first quiet New Year's I've had in ages.

  • His body was found New Year's Day, 1993, Alpine Grove.

  • A television shows Dick Clark as he emcees the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • If you're like most people, you'll make at least one New Year's resolution this year.

    Academic text (2009)
  • Many people look forward to celebrating New Year's with fireworks and parties.

Synonyms

January 1
vsNew Year's
54 1.0

The first day of the year celebrated with parties and fireworks

is the seasonal holiday observed by many countries rather than merely the calendar date
New Year's Day
vsNew Year's
24 1.0

The first day of the year, celebrated as a public holiday on 1 January

is the first day of the year celebrated broadly rather than an official public holiday

Surface Forms

New Year's singular
New Year's plural

Morphology

new + Year's

The meaning is directly compositional: 'new' (recent) + 'year's' (of the year/possessive) yields reference to the new year or New Year's Day, and the phrase is an elliptical form of 'New Year's Day' or 'New Year’s celebration'. This is a common, transparent possessive/construction found across languages and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words and the possessive '’s' usage.

Etymology

New Year's comes from the longer phrase New Year's Day, the first day of the year. People long ago turned a new page on the calendar and celebrated at midnight, so 'New Year's' now means the holiday when the year begins and people often have parties or make resolutions.