Home › Glossary › Letter B

Bissextile Day

Time And Calendar
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An old name for the extra day added in a leap year. It suggests rare, borrowed, or irregular time.

Detailed Definition
Bissextile day is a traditional term associated with the additional day in a leap year, now usually called Leap Day. Because it interrupts the ordinary count of the calendar, poets may use it to represent exception, suspension, or time unexpectedly granted. Its archaic sound is useful in historical verse, and its unusual status can make it a fitting setting for reversals, vows, folklore, and imagined freedoms.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem set on February 29 can call it Bissextile Day, emphasizing its rare appearance in the calendar; A speaker might describe a child born on Bissextile Day as someone whose “true birthdays” arrive only every four years; A comic lyric could treat Bissextile Day as stolen time, when ordinary rules of aging and courtship are briefly suspended; A reflective poem could use the extra day as a metaphor for an unexpected interval of grief, love, or reprieve
Additional Notes
Bissextile Day is a historical term for leap day, 29 February, an added date that corrects the calendar’s drift from the solar year. In poetry it can suggest an extra, uncanny, borrowed, or suspended interval of time, as well as rare anniversaries and disrupted routines. Compare leap year, intercalation, and chronogram. Study hint: use its rarity to make a moment feel exceptional, but give the reader enough context to understand it.
Also Known As
Leap Day
Skip to main content