February
name ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 the month following January and preceding March wordnet
- 1 The short month following January and preceding March in the Roman, Julian, and Gregorian calendars, used in all three calendars for intercalation or addition of leap days.
"Holonyms: calendar year; year"
- 2 A female given name transferred from the month name [in turn from English]. rare
"“Cheryl, the man in this photo is a Mr. Dennis Lowe. He worked for a computer software company and he was married. He was impersonating a police officer, a real one by the name of Alexander Colton. He was doing this because he's obsessed with a woman named February—” Nowakowski stopped talking because Cheryl Sheckle's body jerked violently and she let out a muted cry. […] “It isn't a nickname, Cheryl. It's a real person, her name is February Owens and he's been obsessed with her since they went to high school together.”"
Synonyms
All synonymsAntonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"I am very sorry, but I must cancel our appointment for February 27."
Etymology
From Middle English Februarie, februari, februare, from Latin Februārius (“the month of the Februa”), from Februa (“the Purgings, the Purifications”), a Roman holiday two days after its ides (i.e., Feb. 15), + -arius (“-ary: forming adjectives”). Februa from februum (“purging”), from an earlier Sabine [Term?] word, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“smoke, haze”) and thus cognate with thio- (“sulfurous”) and Ancient Greek θεῖον (theîon, “sulfur”) or from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰris, an extension of the root *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn”) and thus cognate with fever and febris. A relatinization abandoning Middle English feoverel, from Old French feverier, which itself displaced Old English solmōnaþ (“mud month”).
Related phrases
More for "february"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.