date
Date (noun) means a specific point in time, usually given as a day, month, and year. Example: “What's the date of the meeting?”
How to use date
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishMost often either a point on the calendar, a romantic outing (or the person you go with), or the sweet fruit from a date palm.
The calendar/appointment sense and the fruit sense look identical but come from completely unrelated word histories — pure coincidence, not a shared root.
Word forms
dated past tense, dates plural, dates plural, Dates plural, dates singular
Fill the gap
Can you complete this real example?
What's the _____ of the meeting?
Etymology
The calendar sense comes from Latin data, "given," from the Roman custom of writing a letter's place and time as "given at..." The fruit sense is unrelated, coming via Old French from Greek daktulos ("finger"), because a date resembles a finger.
Synonyms
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Rhymes for date
See all rhymes for date →Frequently asked questions
What does “date” mean?
The word “date” means a specific point in time, usually given as a day, month, and year. In plain terms, most often either a point on the calendar, a romantic outing (or the person you go with), or the sweet fruit from a date palm.
How do you pronounce “date”?
“Date” is pronounced dayt (/deɪt/ in IPA).
How do you use “date” in a sentence?
Here is “date” used in a sentence: “What's the date of the meeting?”
What is another word for “date”?
Words with a similar meaning to “date” include go out [with], go with, go together, hang together, have a thing and see.
What part of speech is “date”?
Depending on how it is used, “date” can be a noun and a verb.
Where does the word “date” come from?
The word “date” comes from Latin.
Is “date” a common word?
“Date” is a very common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A1 level.
How many meanings does “date” have?
“Date” has 5 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a specific point in time, usually given as a day, month, and year.
What is the difference between a date and a day?
A date is a specific point on the calendar, identified by day, month, and year, such as 4 July 2026. A day is either a 24-hour period or one of the seven named weekdays, like Monday. Every date falls on a day, but a day alone does not pinpoint a unique moment in the calendar.
How do you write a date correctly?
It depends on the convention. British style is day-month-year, as in 10 July 2026, while American style is month-day-year, as in July 10, 2026. The international ISO standard writes year-month-day, such as 2026-07-10, which sorts cleanly and avoids confusion between the day and month numbers.
What are the different date formats?
The three main formats are day-month-year, used across the UK and much of the world; month-day-year, standard in the United States; and year-month-day, the ISO 8601 standard used in computing. Formats may separate the parts with slashes, dashes, or fully written-out month names, depending on the setting and audience.
What is an example of a date?
"25 December 2025" is a date: it names a single day, its month, and its year, so it identifies one exact point on the calendar. A date can be written in full or in numbers, such as 25/12/2025, and often marks an event, a deadline, or an anniversary.
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