December

noun

De·​cem·​ber di-ˈsem-bər 

dē-

: the 12th month of the Gregorian calendar

Examples of December in a Sentence

Her birthday is in late December.

This December was not as cold as the past few Decembers have been.

Recent Examples on the Web

The outlet reported on Saturday that the company — which the pair founded in December 2021 to give people a safe space online to talk about their mental health struggles — ran out of funds to pay its roughly 15 employees, freelancers and other vendors. —Brenton Blanchet, People.com, 11 May 2025

The Gothic spires of the Salt Lake Temple still stand out against the cluster of modern office buildings that make up the skyline, but the temple has been closed for renovations since December 2019. —Carley Thornell, Travel + Leisure, 11 May 2025

According to a December 2024 study by Future, the media company behind TechRadar, about 67% of U.S. AI users report being polite to AI tools. —William Arruda, Forbes.com, 11 May 2025

Instead, Southampton kept their first clean sheet since December and prevented Manchester City from scoring against the team bottom of the league for the first time since November 2015. —Jordan Campbell, New York Times, 11 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English Decembre, from Old English or Anglo-French, both from Latin December (tenth month), from decem ten — more at ten

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for December

• dismember
• nonmember
• november
• remember
• september
• ember
• member

Kids Definition

December

noun

De·​cem·​ber di-ˈsem-bər 

: the twelfth month of the year

Etymology

Middle English Decembre, December "last month of the year," from early French decembre (same meaning), from Latin December, literally, "tenth month," from decem "ten" — related to decimal, dime

Word Origin

In the first calendar used by the ancient Romans, the year began with the month of March. The Romans called the tenth month of the year December, using the Latin word decem, meaning "ten." When the word was borrowed into early French, it became decembre. That was also how it was first spelled when it came into Middle English. In time, however, the English word was changed to match the original Latin in spelling and in having a capital letter.