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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

yearly.

Happening once every year.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈjɪəli/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈjɪːlɪj/British, Southern, Standard/ˈjɪɹli/General-American/ˈjɪɚli/General-American

  1. Happening once every year.

    not-comparable
    Christmas is a yearly celebration.
    We deep-clean the kitchen lustrally, on a five-yearly basis.

  2. Over the course of one year

    not-comparable
    a yearly income
Where this word comes from

From Middle English yeerly, yerely, from Old English ġēarlīċ, ġērlīċ (“yearly, of the year, annual”), equivalent to year + -ly (adjectival suffix) or -ly (adverbial suffix). Cognate with Scots yerelie (“yearly”), Saterland Frisian jierelk (“yearly”), West Frisian jierliks (“yearly”), Dutch jaarlijks (“yearly”), Afrikaans jaarliks (“yearly”), German jährlich (“yearly”), Danish årlig (“yearly”), Norwegian Bokmål årlig (“yearly”), Norwegian Nynorsk årleg (“yearly”), Swedish årlig (“yearly”), Icelandic árlegur (“yearly”).

adv/ˈjɪəli/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈjɪːlɪj/British, Southern, Standard/ˈjɪɹli/General-American/ˈjɪɚli/General-American

  1. Once a year.

    not-comparable

  2. Every year.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English yeerly, yerely, from Old English ġēarlīċ, ġērlīċ (“yearly, of the year, annual”), equivalent to year + -ly (adjectival suffix) or -ly (adverbial suffix). Cognate with Scots yerelie (“yearly”), Saterland Frisian jierelk (“yearly”), West Frisian jierliks (“yearly”), Dutch jaarlijks (“yearly”), Afrikaans jaarliks (“yearly”), German jährlich (“yearly”), Danish årlig (“yearly”), Norwegian Bokmål årlig (“yearly”), Norwegian Nynorsk årleg (“yearly”), Swedish årlig (“yearly”), Icelandic árlegur (“yearly”).

noun/ˈjɪəli/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈjɪːlɪj/British, Southern, Standard/ˈjɪɹli/General-American/ˈjɪɚli/General-American

  1. Something that is published once a year.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English yeerly, yerely, from Old English ġēarlīċ, ġērlīċ (“yearly, of the year, annual”), equivalent to year + -ly (adjectival suffix) or -ly (adverbial suffix). Cognate with Scots yerelie (“yearly”), Saterland Frisian jierelk (“yearly”), West Frisian jierliks (“yearly”), Dutch jaarlijks (“yearly”), Afrikaans jaarliks (“yearly”), German jährlich (“yearly”), Danish årlig (“yearly”), Norwegian Bokmål årlig (“yearly”), Norwegian Nynorsk årleg (“yearly”), Swedish årlig (“yearly”), Icelandic árlegur (“yearly”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.