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equinoctial

/ˌiː.kwəˈnɑk.ʃəl/adjective, noun

equinoctial is an adjective meaning “Of or relating to the spring or autumnal equinox” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled E-Q-U-I-N-O-C-T-I-A-L and has 4 syllables, and it appears about once in every 37 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does equinoctial mean?

adjective

  1. 1

    Of or relating to the spring or autumnal equinox.

    an equinoctial gale or storm, i.e. one happening at or near the time of the equinox, in any part of the world

  2. 2

    Of or relating to the celestial equator.

  3. 3

    Equatorial: of or relating to the equator of the Earth.

  4. 4

    Of flowers: that open and close at particular times of day.

noun

  1. 1

    The great circle midway between the celestial poles; the celestial equator.

  2. 2

    rareThe terrestrial equator.

  3. 3

    An equinoctial gale.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce equinoctial?

  • UK /ˌɛk.wɪˈnɒk.ʃəl/
  • US /ˌiː.kwəˈnɑk.ʃəl/
  • US /ˌɛk.wəˈnɑk.ʃəl/

Equinoctial has 4 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-equinoctial.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of equinoctial

  • æquinoctial
  • equinoctials plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is equinoctial?

Equinoctial appears about once in every 37 million words in written English, the 187,122nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Equinoctial in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense of, or relating to an equinox:

LanguageWords
Frenchéquinoxial
Portugueseequinocial
Spanishequinoccial

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does equinoctial come from?

Inherited from Middle English equinoctial, equinoccial, equinoxial, from Old French equinoxial, from Latin (circulus) aequinoctiālis, from aequinoctium + -alis.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).