October

//ɒkˈtəʊ.bə// name, noun, verb

name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A type of ale traditionally brewed in October. historical, uncountable

    "Sir, if I vvas vvorthy to adviſe you, I vvou'd have a Bottle of good October by me. Shall I ſet a Cup of old Stingo at your Elbovv?"

  2. 2
    the month following September and preceding November wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    In the early Soviet Union, to give a child a name tinged with Soviet revolutionary thought, as opposed to religious christening. historical, transitive
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The tenth month of the Gregorian calendar, following September and preceding November.

    "Holonyms: calendar year; year"

  2. 2
    A female given name transferred from the month name. rare

    "The other one [book] I just read is October Suite by Maxine Clair (Random House, $23.95). It's about a woman named October. She's a young black schoolteacher in the 1950s ..."

Synonyms

All synonyms
octspooktobertenth month

Example

More examples

"The athletic meet took place on October 15."

Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French octobre, from Latin Octōber (“eighth month”), from Latin octō (“eight”), from Proto-Indo-European *oḱtṓw (“twice four”); + Latin -ber, from -bris, an adjectival suffix; October was the eighth month in the Roman calendar.

Related phrases

6th of OctoberOctober 7October 8th JewOctober RevolutionOctober WarOctober beerOctober effectOctober surpriseOctober-birdRed Octoberhumming Octobermid-October

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