February
Feb·ru·ary/ˈfɛb.ɹʊ.ə.ɹi/proper noun
February is spelled F-E-B-R-U-A-R-Y, 3 syllables: Feb·ru·ary. The wrong spelling people search most is febuary: about 2,650 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. February is a proper noun meaning “The short month following January and preceding March in the Roman, Julian, and Gregorian calendars, used in…”.
How many letters and syllables are in February?
| Letters | 8: F-E-B-R-U-A-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: Feb·ru·ary |
| In writing | 107 times per million words; the 996th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 3; the most searched, febuary, about 2,650 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell February?
February is spelled F-E-B-R-U-A-R-Y. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for February in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is February?
February appears 107 times per million words in written English, the 996th 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).
How do you pronounce February?
- UK /ˈfɛb.ɹʊ.ə.ɹi/
- UK /ˈfɛb.j(ʊ.)ə.ɹi/
- UK /ˈfɛb.ɹə.ɹi/
February has 3 syllables, split Feb·ru·ary in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-february.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Commonsense1776-February.wav, En-us-February.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of February
- Feb
- Feb.
- FEB
- Februarius
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does February mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
proper noun
- 1
The short month following January and preceding March in the Roman, Julian, and Gregorian calendars, used in all three calendars for intercalation or addition of leap days.
Holonyms: calendar year; year
- 2
rareA female given name transferred from the month name [in turn from English].
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
February in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense second month of the Roman, Julian, and Gregorian calendars:
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 February come from?
From Middle English Februarie, februari, februare, from Latin Februārius (“the month of the Februa”), from Februa (“the Purgings, the Purifications”), a Roman holiday two days after its ides (i.e., Feb. 15), + -arius (“-ary: forming adjectives”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).