fortnight - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
fortnight (plural fortnights)
- (chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, dated in North America) A period of 2 weeks.
- ✤ Hyponyms: quindene, quindecim
- ✤ Holonyms: month < year < gigasecond < century < kiloannum, kiloyear, millennium < terasecond < mega-annum, megayear < petasecond < giga-annum, gigayear < exasecond < zettasecond < yottasecond < ronnasecond < quettasecond
- ✤ Meronyms: quectosecond < rontosecond < yoctosecond < zeptosecond < attosecond < femtosecond < picosecond < nanosecond < microsecond < millisecond < centisecond < decisecond < second < decasecond < minute < hectosecond < kilosecond < hour < day < week < megasecond
- ✤ Near-synonym: halfmonth
- ✤ On being kicked the girl fell desperately in love with Henri, and for a fortnight they lived together and spent a thousand francs of Henri’s money.1
- ✤ The “lame duck” Johnson Administration, in its final fortnight in office, grappled last week with a diplomatic hot potato in the form of the latest Soviet proposal for a “just and lasting” Middle East peace settlement.2
- ✤ The NHS is bracing itself for its worst ever winter crisis descending in the next fortnight because of a worsening “flu-nami” that has left hospitals, GP surgeries and ambulances services under intense strain.3
Etymology
From Middle English fourtenyght, fourtene nyght, from Old English fēowertīene niht (literally “fourteen nights”; the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights), equivalent to fourteen + night. Compare sennight.
Pronunciation
Printed 2026-07-15.
(echo:: @ ⌗)
Footnotes
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1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter I, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC: ↩
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1969 January 12, Benjamin Welles, “A Hot Potato for Nixon”, in The New York Times , →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 December 2025: ↩
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2025 December 12, Tobi Thomas, Denis Campbell, “NHS bracing for worst ever winter crisis in next fortnight amid rising flu cases”, in The Guardian : ↩