A Leap Year Adds a Day and Skips a Weekday
To leap is to jump. The leap year is named for a day of the week that gets jumped over.
To leap is to jump, especially a long way. The *leap year* is named for what the extra day does to the calendar: a fixed date normally moves forward one weekday each year, but in a leap year it jumps two, skipping one entirely. A date that falls on Monday one year lands on Wednesday after a leap year rather than Tuesday. *Look before you leap* is recorded from the 1300s, and *by leaps and bounds* from the 1700s.
- To jump. *Leap across.*
- A jump. *A great leap.*
- Leap year. *A leap year.*
- Look before you leap — be cautious. *Look before you leap.*
- Old English — *hleapan*. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | leap | Leaping. |
| Past | leapt | Leapt. |
| Past | leaped | Leaped. |
| Noun | leap | A leap. |
| Compound | leapfrog | Leapfrog. |
- She leapt over the wall.Jumping.
- A leap year has 366 days.Calendar.
- Look before you leap.Proverb.
How leap years work
- A year is about 365.2422 days long
- Adding a day every four years slightly overcorrects
- Century years are not leap years unless divisible by 400
- So 1900 was not, but 2000 was
- The rule keeps the calendar accurate to within a day over three thousand years
Old English *hleapan*, to jump or run, of Germanic origin, related to German *laufen*.
Why is it called a leap year?
Because a fixed date jumps forward two weekdays instead of one, skipping a day of the week entirely.
Are all years divisible by four leap years?
No. Century years are excluded unless they are also divisible by 400, which is why 1900 was not and 2000 was.