quinquennium

English

Alternative forms

• quinquennie

Etymology

From Latin quīnquennium, from quinquennis (“5-year”) + -ium (“forming abstract nouns”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kwɪŋˈkwɛniəm/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kwɪŋˈkwɛnɪəm/, /kwɪnˈkwɛnɪəm/

Noun

quinquennium (plural quinquenniums or quinquennia)

1. A period of five years.

   Coordinate terms: annum, biennium, triennium, quadrennium, sexennium, septennium, octennium, novennium, decennium, vicennium, tricennium, centennium, quincentennium, millennium, decamillennium, centimillennium, millionennium

   During the quinquennium from 1991 to 1995, infant mortality increased.

Usage notes

The Roman usage of the term counted inclusively so that quinquennia were 4 year cycles. This is not usually intended in English but may occur in translations of classical texts.

Pentad or the neologism quintade are sometimes used when one wishes to specify the first and second halves of calendrical decades. Lustrum and luster are particularly used for the 5 year periods of the Roman censuses, after the purification ritual that usually followed the count.

Synonyms

• quinquennial, quinquennal, quinquenniad, quintennium, pentad, quintade, lustrum, luster

Hyponyms

• See Thesaurus:quintet

Related terms

• (adj.): quinquennial, quinquennal, quintennial

Translations

References

• “quinquennium, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2022.

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /kʷiːnˈkʷen.ni.um/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kwinˈkwen.ni.um/,

Etymology 1

Adjective

quīnquennium

1. genitive masculine/feminine/neuter plural of quīnquennis

Etymology 2

From quīnquennis (“5-year”) +‎ -ium (“-ium: forming abstract nouns”), from quīnque (“five”) + annus (“year”) + -is (“forming compound adjs”).

Noun

quīnquennium n (genitive quīnquenniī or quīnquennī); second declension

1. A period of five years.
2. A five-year term of office.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

References

• “quinquennium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “quinquennium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• quinquennium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.