January
noun
Jan·u·ary
ˈjan-yə-ˌwer-ē 
-ˌwe-rē
plural Januaries or Januarys
: the first month of the Gregorian calendar
Examples of January in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a ceremony in Jerusalem on January 23, 2020 commemorating the people of Leningrad during the Second World War Nazi siege on the city.
—
Scott Montgomery, Forbes.com, 6 Aug. 2025
Brown was an armor crewman in the Army from January 2001 to May 2005 and served in the National Guard from April 2006 to March 2008, Army Public Affairs confirmed to Fox News Digital.
—Peter D'abrosca , Adam Sabes, FOXNews.com, 5 Aug. 2025
The Carmel Valley Community Planning Board was moved to take action to establish the council in light of the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles in January.
—Karen Billing, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Aug. 2025
Ever since the open source DeepSeek R1 shook the industry in January with its reasoning capabilities at a much lower cost, many other Chinese models have followed suit—including Alibaba’s Qwen and Moonshot AI’s Kimi models.
—Sharon Goldman, Fortune, 5 Aug. 2025
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Scott Montgomery, Forbes.com, 6 Aug. 2025
Brown was an armor crewman in the Army from January 2001 to May 2005 and served in the National Guard from April 2006 to March 2008, Army Public Affairs confirmed to Fox News Digital.
—Peter D'abrosca , Adam Sabes, FOXNews.com, 5 Aug. 2025
The Carmel Valley Community Planning Board was moved to take action to establish the council in light of the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles in January.
—Karen Billing, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Aug. 2025
Ever since the open source DeepSeek R1 shook the industry in January with its reasoning capabilities at a much lower cost, many other Chinese models have followed suit—including Alibaba’s Qwen and Moonshot AI’s Kimi models.
—Sharon Goldman, Fortune, 5 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for January
Cite this Entry
“January.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/January. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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January
noun
Jan·u·ary
ˈjan-yə-ˌwer-ē
: the first month of the year
Etymology
from Latin Januarius "first month of the year," from Janus, a Roman god
Word Origin
Among the many gods worshipped by the ancient Romans was one named Janus. He was believed to have two faces, one looking forward and one looking back. Janus was associated with doors, gates, and all beginnings. Because of that, when the Romans changed their calendar and added two months to the beginning of the year, they named the first one Januarius to honor Janus. The English January comes from Latin Januarius.
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