"years" meaning in English

See years in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /jɪəz/ [Received-Pronunciation], /jɜːz/ (note: Wales, General South African, other regions), /jɪɹz/ [General-American] Audio: en-us-years.ogg [US]
enPR: yîrz Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)z, -ɜː(ɹ)z Head templates: {{head|en|noun form}} years
  1. plural of year. Tags: form-of, plural Form of: year
    Sense id: en-years-en-noun-hItY8-kT

Noun

IPA: /jɪəz/ [Received-Pronunciation], /jɜːz/ (note: Wales, General South African, other regions), /jɪɹz/ [General-American] Audio: en-us-years.ogg [US]
enPR: yîrz Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)z, -ɜː(ɹ)z Head templates: {{en-noun|p}} years pl (plural only)
  1. (colloquial, hyperbolic) A very long time. Tags: colloquial, excessive, plural, plural-only Synonyms (unusually long time): ages, yonks, for ever, donkey’s years, donkey’s
    Sense id: en-years-en-noun-o~hqJZEz Categories (other): English hyperboles, English entries with incorrect language header, English pluralia tantum Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 3 97 Disambiguation of English pluralia tantum: 22 78

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for years meaning in English (3.1kB)

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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1981, May 5 1718-PDT, Jim McGrath, Earliest Usenet use via Google Groups: fa.sf-lovers, said with a smile at an awards ceremony in the Pennsylvania state Capitol\nIt will be a shorter book and it will not start four million years ago."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist",
          "text": "Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis: the ability to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and waste oxygen using solar energy.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
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        "plural of year."
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      "id": "en-years-en-noun-hItY8-kT",
      "links": [
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          "year",
          "year#English"
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      "tags": [
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        "plural"
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  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/jɪəz/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/jɜːz/",
      "note": "Wales, General South African, other regions"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/jɪɹz/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɪə(ɹ)z"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɜː(ɹ)z"
    },
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      "audio": "en-us-years.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/62/En-us-years.ogg/En-us-years.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/En-us-years.ogg",
      "tags": [
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      "text": "Audio (US)"
    },
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  "word": "years"
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{
  "head_templates": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English hyperboles",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
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          "_dis": "3 97",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "22 78",
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          "parents": [
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            "Nouns",
            "Lemmas"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It took years for the bus to come."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A very long time."
      ],
      "id": "en-years-en-noun-o~hqJZEz",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, hyperbolic) A very long time."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "sense": "unusually long time",
          "word": "ages"
        },
        {
          "sense": "unusually long time",
          "word": "yonks"
        },
        {
          "sense": "unusually long time",
          "word": "for ever"
        },
        {
          "sense": "unusually long time",
          "word": "donkey’s years"
        },
        {
          "sense": "unusually long time",
          "word": "donkey’s"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "excessive",
        "plural",
        "plural-only"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
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    },
    {
      "ipa": "/jɜːz/",
      "note": "Wales, General South African, other regions"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/jɪɹz/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɪə(ɹ)z"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɜː(ɹ)z"
    },
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      "audio": "en-us-years.ogg",
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  "word": "years"
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    "English noun forms",
    "English nouns",
    "English pluralia tantum",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)z",
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  "pos": "noun",
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        {
          "text": "1981, May 5 1718-PDT, Jim McGrath, Earliest Usenet use via Google Groups: fa.sf-lovers, said with a smile at an awards ceremony in the Pennsylvania state Capitol\nIt will be a shorter book and it will not start four million years ago."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist",
          "text": "Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis: the ability to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and waste oxygen using solar energy.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
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        "plural of year."
      ],
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      "tags": [
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        "plural"
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      "ipa": "/jɪəz/",
      "tags": [
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      "ipa": "/jɜːz/",
      "note": "Wales, General South African, other regions"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/jɪɹz/",
      "tags": [
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    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɪə(ɹ)z"
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      "rhymes": "-ɜː(ɹ)z"
    },
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      "audio": "en-us-years.ogg",
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      "tags": [
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  "word": "years"
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{
  "categories": [
    "English 1-syllable words",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English non-lemma forms",
    "English noun forms",
    "English nouns",
    "English pluralia tantum",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)z",
    "Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)z/1 syllable",
    "Rhymes:English/ɪə(ɹ)z",
    "Rhymes:English/ɪə(ɹ)z/1 syllable"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English hyperboles"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It took years for the bus to come."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A very long time."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, hyperbolic) A very long time."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "excessive",
        "plural",
        "plural-only"
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    }
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  "sounds": [
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      "ipa": "/jɪəz/",
      "tags": [
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      "ipa": "/jɜːz/",
      "note": "Wales, General South African, other regions"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/jɪɹz/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
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      "rhymes": "-ɜː(ɹ)z"
    },
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      "audio": "en-us-years.ogg",
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/En-us-years.ogg",
      "tags": [
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "unusually long time",
      "word": "ages"
    },
    {
      "sense": "unusually long time",
      "word": "yonks"
    },
    {
      "sense": "unusually long time",
      "word": "for ever"
    },
    {
      "sense": "unusually long time",
      "word": "donkey’s years"
    },
    {
      "sense": "unusually long time",
      "word": "donkey’s"
    }
  ],
  "word": "years"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-24 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (82c8ff9 and f4967a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.