leap year
5
1.8
- noun
- /liːp jɪr/
:
año bisiesto
- I keep forgetting the leap year.
Examples
-
Thus, 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, but 1600 was and 2000 will be.
Academic text (1991) -
The only thing that runs on schedule is the observance of Epiphany, like clockwork, on January 19, except this year (because it is a leap year) celebrated instead on January 20.
Academic text (2004) -
- It was a leap year.
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Is this a leap year, by any chance?
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Leap years are every four years.
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It is leap year, you know.
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In Ireland, there's this tradition that in a leap year, a woman can propose to a man on February 29th, one day every four years.
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Yeah, and you guys have this great tradition that a woman can propose to a man on the 29th of February in a leap year. - Yeah? - Yeah.
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In a leap year, there is an extra day added to February, making it 29 days long.
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Do you know if 2024 is a leap year with 366 days instead of the usual 365?
Synonyms
A year with an extra day in February that has 366 days
A year with an extra day added to February to keep the dates matching the seasons
Surface Forms
Morphology
The element 'leap' evokes a change or addition and 'year' is transparent, so learners can infer this refers to a special kind of year; however the precise meaning — that it has an extra day every four years — is a specific calendrical fact not directly predictable from the constituents alone. Because understanding the exact nature and frequency of the addition requires cultural/lexical knowledge beyond literal composition, the expression is only partly transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Leap year may come from one popular story: because an extra day, February 29, is added, calendar dates after February 28 seem to leap forward and jump over a day of the week. That's why the phrase means a year with an 'extra day'.