What does fortnight mean?

Definitions for fortnight
ˈfɔrtˌnaɪt, -nɪtfort·night

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word fortnight.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. fortnight, two weeksnoun

    a period of fourteen consecutive days

    "most major tennis tournaments last a fortnight"

Wiktionary

  1. fortnightnoun

    A period of fourteen nights; two weeks.

  2. fortnightadverb

    After a fortnight has passed.

    1852 Charles Dickens, Bleak House: We will proceed with the hearing on Wednesday fortnight.

  3. Etymology: Contracted form of feowertyne niht. Compare sennight.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Fortnightnoun

    Etymology: contracted from fourteen nights, feowretynenight, Saxon.

    Tacitus,.

    Non dierum numerum ut nos, sed noctium computant.]

    She would give her a lesson for walking so late, that should make her keep within doors for one fortnight. Philip Sidney, b. ii.

    Hanging in a deep well, somewhat above the water, for some fortnights space, is an excellent means of making drink fresh and quick. Francis Bacon, Natural History.

    About a fortnight before I had finished it, his majesty’s declaration for liberty of conscience came abroad. Dryden.

    He often had it in his head, but never, with much apprehension, ’till about a fortnight before. Jonathan Swift.

Wikipedia

  1. Fortnight

    A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term fēowertīene niht, meaning "fourteen nights" (or "fourteen days," since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights).

ChatGPT

  1. fortnight

    A fortnight is a unit of time equivalent to 14 days or two weeks. It is commonly used in the United Kingdom and other countries that use British English.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Fortnightnoun

    the space of fourteen days; two weeks

  2. Etymology: [Contr. fr. fourteen nights, our ancestors reckoning time by nights and winters; so, also, seven nights, sennight, a week.]

Wikidata

  1. Fortnight

    A fortnight is a unit of time equal to fourteen days. The word derives from the Old English: fēowertyne niht, meaning "fourteen nights". Fortnight and fortnightly are commonly used words in Britain, Ireland and many Commonwealth countries such as Australia, India, New Zealand, and Pakistan, where many wages and salaries and most social security benefits are paid on a fortnightly basis. The word is rarely used in North America, except regionally in Canada and in insular traditional communities in the United States. American and Canadian payroll systems may use the term biweekly in reference to pay periods every two weeks. Neither term should be confused with semimonthly.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Fortnight

    fort′nīt, n. two weeks or fourteen days.—adj. and adv. Fort′nightly, once a fortnight. [Contr. of A.S. féowertýne niht, fourteen nights.]

British National Corpus

  1. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'fortnight' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2043

  2. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'fortnight' in Nouns Frequency: #2363

How to pronounce fortnight?

How to say fortnight in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of fortnight in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of fortnight in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of fortnight in a Sentence

  1. Charlie Watts:

    Every band I’d ever been in had lasted a week, i always thought the Stones would last a week, then a fortnight, and then suddenly, it’s 30 years.

  2. Helen Dixon:

    I expect that file to land on my desk in the next fortnight, i'd like to say that we could do it in 48 hours, but it has to be in the order of months, to be done in the way that it has to be done. I will have to allow them a period of time to respond. I would have to consider their responses.

  3. Sarah Wootton:

    One Briton is already traveling abroad to die every fortnight while over 300 terminally ill people are taking their own lives at home, usually alone and in dangerous ways, every year, the Assisted Dying Bill would have put rigorous safeguards in place, not only to give dying people choice, but also to better protect them.

  4. Anand James:

    The market has been on a downward trend during the last couple of days and that is not surprising because during the last two years, we have seen the fortnight preceding the budget to be a cautious time this year, we have approached the budget on a high and that is all the more reason for traders to take some money off the table.

  5. Samuel Johnson:

    When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

fortnight#10000#30493#100000

Translations for fortnight

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"fortnight." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 Jun 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/fortnight>.

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    fortification consisting of a low wall
    A helm
    B breastwork
    C pluck
    D ternion

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