bissextile

American  

[bahy-seks-til, -tahyl, bih-] / baɪˈsɛks tɪl, -taɪl, bɪ- /

adjective

1. containing or noting the extra day of leap year.

   The years 1980 and 1984 were both bissextile.

---

noun

1. leap year.

bissextile British  

/ bɪˈsɛkstaɪl /

adjective

1. (of a month or year) containing the extra day of a leap year

---

noun

1. a rare name for leap year

Etymology

Origin of bissextile

1585–95; < Late Latin bi ( s ) sextilis ( annus ) leap year, equivalent to bissext ( us ) bissextus + -ilis -ile

Example Sentences

When an extra day was put in every fourth year before the 24th, this was a second 6th day, and was therefore called bissexto-kalendas, whence we get the name bissextile, applied to leap year.

From Astronomical Myths Based on Flammarions's History of the Heavens by Blake, John F.

In ordinary years it contains 28 days; but in bissextile or leap year, by the addition of the intercalary day, it consists of 29 days.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 2 "Fairbanks, Erastus" to "Fens" by Various

For, on account of our intercalation of one day every bissextile year, the Mexican year receded, as compared with ours, one day every four years.

From Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican Vol. 1 of 2 A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of That Country From the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time; With a View of the Ancient Aztec Empire and Civilization; A Historical Sketch of the Late War; And Notices of New Mexico and California by Mayer, Brantz

The whole acre divided into four denotes the bissextile period of four years.

From The Ruins, or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires and the Law of Nature by Volney, C.-F. (Constantin-François)

The bissextile is known to have been used by the Mayas, Tzendals, and Quichés, and it was probably common.

From Ancient America, in Notes on American Archaeology by Baldwin, John D. (John Denison)