season
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈsiː.zn̩/
ipa: /ˈsi.zn̩/
enpr: sēʹzən
ipa: /ˈsɪi.zən/
rhymes: -iːzən
Forms: form: seasons
Etymology: From Middle English sesoun, seson (“time of the year”), from Old French seson, saison (“time of sowing, seeding”), from Latin satiō (“act of sowing, planting”) from satum, past participle of serō (“to sow, plant”) from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow, plant”). Akin to Old English sāwan (“to sow”), sǣd (“seed”). Doublet of saison. Displaced native Middle English sele (“season”) (from Old English sǣl (“season, time, occasion”)), Middle English tide (“season, time of year”) (from Old English tīd (“time, period, yeartide, season”)).
Senses: examples: text: we saw, in six days' traveling, the several seasons of the year in their beauty and perfection
ref: c. 1705, Joseph Addison, Remarks on several parts of Italy, &c. in the years 1701, 1702, 1703:
text: We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun, / But the wine and the song, / like the seasons, have all gone.
ref: 1973, “Seasons in the Sun”, Jaques Brel (original version), Rod McKuen (lyrics), performed by Terry Jacks:
synonyms: yeartide
yeartime
glosses: Each of the four divisions of a year: spring, summer, autumn (fall) and winter
examples: text: mating season
text: the rainy season
text: the football season
text: Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: Curry, a four-time NBA champion with the Warriors, played for the Wildcats for three seasons between 2006 and 2009, where he was twice named conference player of the year. […] Curry has been named NBA regular season MVP twice and is an 11-time All Star.
ref: 2025 March 11, Matias Grez, “Steph Curry accepts assistant general manager role at alma mater Davidson College”, in CNN:
glosses: A period of the year when something particular happens.
examples: text: He seldom was seen in the office himself, but occasionally a paragraph in the paper recorded that his yacht had touched at Mentone and that he had been seen at the Monte Carlo tables, or that he was expected in Leicestershire for the season.
ref: 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
glosses: A period of the year in which a place is most busy or frequented for business, amusement, etc.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: The period over which a series of Test matches are played.
examples: text: O! she is fallen
Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea
Hath drops too few to wash her clean again,
And salt too little which may season give
To her foul-tainted flesh.
ref: 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
text: You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:
glosses: That which gives relish; seasoning.
examples: text: The third season of Robot Chicken aired from 2007 to 2008.
text: Or - is she Erin Gray in the second season of Buck Rogers beautiful?
ref: 1998 February 11, “Tom's Rhinoplasty”, in South Park, season 1, episode 11:
topics: broadcasting
media
synonyms: series
glosses: A group of episodes of a television or radio program broadcast in regular intervals with a long break between each group, usually with one year between the beginning of each.
examples: text: It was the Winter wilde.
While the Heav’n-born-childe,
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies:
Nature in aw to him
Had doff't her gawdy trim,
With her great Maſter ſo to ſympathize:
It was no ſeaſon then for her
To wanton with the Sun her luſty Paramour.
ref: 1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “On the Morning of Christs Nativity”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC, page 2:
text: So it is in a person when a breach hath been made upon his conscience, quiet, perhaps credit, by his lust, in some eruption of actual sin; — carefulness, indignation, desire, fear, revenge are all set on work about it and against it, and lust is quiet for a season, being run down before them; but when the hurry is over and the inquest is past, the thief appears again alive, and is as busy as ever at his work.
ref: 1656, John Owen, The Mortification of Sin:
text: A season of great doubt fell upon her soul.
ref: 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
glosses: An extended, undefined period of time.
examples: text: a season of faithlessness
qualifier: Evangelical Christianity
glosses: A period of time in one’s life characterized by a particular emotion of situation.
topics: video-games
glosses: The full set of downloadable content for a game, which can be purchased with a season pass.
topics: video-games
glosses: A fixed period of time in a massively multiplayer online game in which new content (themes, rules, modes, etc.) becomes available, sometimes replacing earlier content.
Derived terms: all-season tire
Christmas season
closed season
close season
cuffing season
dry season
earnings season
end-of-season
festive season
gooseberry season
growing season
harvest season
high season
holiday season
in good season
in season
in season and out of season
lambing season
learning season
low season
mating season
midseason
mid-season
mid season
mid season form
mid-season form
monsoon season
mud season
off-season
open season
out of season
peak season
post-season
preseason
rainy season
rutting season
seasonable
seasonal
seasonally
season creep
season finale
season parking
season ticket
shoulder season
silly season
social season
spooky season
stick season
swooping season
tis the season
unseasonable
unseasonably
unseasonally
virtual season
wet season