quadrennial
/kwɑˈdɹɛni.əl/adjective, noun
quadrennial is an adjective meaning “Happening every four years” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled Q-U-A-D-R-E-N-N-I-A-L and has 4 syllables, and it appears about once in every 5 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does quadrennial mean?
adjective
- 1
Happening every four years.
- 2
Lasting for four years.
noun
- 1
A four-year period, a quadrennium.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce quadrennial?
- UK /kwɒˈdɹɛn.i.əl/
- US /kwɑˈdɹɛni.əl/
Quadrennial has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-NaomiAmethyst-quadrennial.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of quadrennial
- quadriennial
- quadrennials plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is quadrennial?
Quadrennial appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 68,248th 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).
Where does quadrennial come from?
Borrowed from Latin quadriennium (“four-year period”), from quattuor (“four”) + annus (“year”). By surface analysis, quadr- + -ennial.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).