January

//ˈd͡ʒæn.juˌɛɹi// name

name ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    the first month of the year; begins 10 days after the winter solstice wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The first month of the Gregorian calendar, following the December of the previous year and preceding February.

    "Holonyms: calendar year; year"

  2. 2
    A female given name transferred from the month name [in turn from English]. rare

    "“Hi, January!” Lynn calls. “Happy birthday!”"

Synonyms

All synonyms
first monthjan

Example

More examples

"The first month of the year is January."

Etymology

From Middle English Januarie, januari, re-latinised forms of Middle English Janevere, Ieneuer, from Anglo-Norman genever, from Latin Iānuārius (“(month) of Janus”), a compound of Iānus ("Janus") + -ārius (adjectival suffix), with the first element perhaps from the Proto-Indo-European root *yeh₂- (“to go”). Doublet of Gennaro.

Related phrases

Black JanuaryDry JanuaryJanuary 6January ClubJanuary EventsJanuary KingJanuary MassacreJanuary RebellionJanuary UprisingJanuary diseaseJanuary effectJanuary indicator

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.