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saros

noun

saros is a noun meaning “A quantity of 3600, such as a period of 3600 years” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled S-A-R-O-S and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 15 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of saros is saroses or saroi.

What does saros mean?

noun

  1. 1

    A quantity of 3600, such as a period of 3600 years.

  2. 2

    A period of 223 synodic months (approximately 18 years 11 days 8 hours), after which the relative positions of the earth, sun and moon recur, used to predict eclipses.

    Suidas’ system (the lunar system) is as follows: reckoning a round 30 days per lunar month, 1 saros ... = 222 lunar months ... rather than 3600 years, as in the solar system, the neros ... being one sixth of that ... instead of 600 years, a

noun

as Saros
  1. 1

    plural of Saro. (a form of Saro)

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

How do you pronounce saros?

Saros has 2 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: En-saros.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of saros

  • saroses plural
  • saroi plural

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

How common is saros?

Saros appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 118,441st 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 saros come from?

From Ancient Greek σάρος (sáros), from Akkadian 𒊹 (šar₂ /⁠šār⁠/, “3600, total, many, a great quantity or measure”). The modern astronomical usage is attributed to Edmond Halley, who based it on the word σάρος (sáros), defined in the Suda as "a measure and a number among Chaldeans. For 120 saroi make 2222 years according to the Chaldeans' reckoning, if indeed the saros makes 222 lunar months, which are 18 years and 6 months."

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