May
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: enpr: mā
ipa: /meɪ/
rhymes: -eɪ
homophone: may
homophone: Mei
Forms: form: Mays
form: Ma
form: Mae
Etymology: From Middle English May, Mai, from Old French mai, from Latin Maius (“Maia's month”), from Maia, a Roman earth goddess.
Senses: examples: text: Holonyms: calendar year; year
text: All in the merry month of May, / When green leaves they was springing, / This young man on his death-bed lay, / For the love of Barbara Allen.
ref: Before 1789, "Bonny Barbara Allen," traditional ballad, collected in Francis James Child and George Lyman Kittridge (1886), The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, vol. II, part II, p. 277
text: At a signing ceremony in the Kazakh capital, Astana, on May 29, the presidents of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan ratified the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) into existence. An EEU modeled on the European Union was first mooted back in 1994 by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, but took off only after his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, seized upon its potential as a Moscow-centered, Asia-oriented alternative to the EU.
ref: 2014 July 1, Frank Jacobs, “Welcome to Stanistan”, in Foreign Policy, archived from the original on 03 Aug 2023:
text: In May, White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller told reporters the Trump administration is “looking at” suspending the writ of habeas corpus for migrants under claims of an “invasion.”
ref: 2025 August 6, Rachel Dobkin, “Significant parts of the Constitution were quietly removed from the Congress website”, in The Independent:
related: word: mul:5
word: January
word: February
word: March
word: April
word: June
word: July
word: August
word: September
word: October
word: November
word: December
glosses: The fifth month of the Gregorian calendar, following April and preceding June.
examples: text: […] I will not send Owen's Lily May to the almshouse." "Lily―what?" demanded Mrs. Morley rather sharply, for she was half provoked with what she mentally called Amy's whim of keeping the outcast child when she might send it to the asylum. "Lily May," said Amy, smiling. "Her name is Mary, and we called her first Little Mary, and then Little May. But Owen calls her Lily May."
ref: 1856, E. D. E. N. Southworth, The Widow's Son, T. B. Peterson, published 1867, page 210:
text: Their parents named them June and May because their birthdays occurred in those months. […] May was like the time of year in which she had been born, changeable, chilly and warm by turns, sullen yet able to know and show loveliness that couldn't last.
ref: 1982, Ruth Rendell, The Fever Tree and Other Stories, Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 119:
text: It's an awkward name: Isamay, pronounced Is-a-may. Isa is my paternal grandmother's name (shortened from Isabel) and May my maternal grandmother's (it comes, somehow, from Margaret). The amalgamation is, as you see, strictly alphabetical. Life, I feel, would have been much easier if they had chosen Maybel.
ref: 2010, Margaret Forster, Isa & May, Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, page 5:
text: Sahaiʔa May Talbot was born on Feb. 15, 2014. However, on her birth certificate, her name is spelled Sahai'a because the Northwest Territories government only allows the Roman alphabet to be used on official documents.
ref: 2016 June 13, Hilary Bird, “Baby named Sahaiʔa prompts changes to Vital Statistics Act”, in CBC News, archived from the original on 13 Jun 2016:
glosses: A female given name, usually pet name for Mary and Margaret, reinforced by the month and plant meaning.
glosses: A surname from Middle English.
glosses: A number of places in the United States:
A former settlement in Amador County, California.
glosses: A number of places in the United States:
An unincorporated community in Lemhi County, Idaho.
glosses: A number of places in the United States:
An unincorporated community in McDonald County, Missouri.
glosses: A number of places in the United States:
A small town in Harper County, Oklahoma.
glosses: A number of places in the United States:
An unincorporated community in Brown County, Texas.
glosses: A number of places in the United States:
An unincorporated community in Pocahontas County, West Virginia.
glosses: A number of places in the United States:
A number of townships in the United States, listed under May Township.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from May
word: Black May
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Bloody May
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Cambus o' May
sense: Terms derived from May
word: have climbed May Hill
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Italian may
sense: Terms derived from May
word: King of May
sense: Terms derived from May
word: King of the May
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Lady of the May
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Lord of May
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Lord of the May
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May 7th
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May and December
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May and January
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May apple
sense: Terms derived from May
word: mayapple
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May Ball
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-bean
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May beetle
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-bird
sense: Terms derived from May
word: maybird
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May bishop
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May blob
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May bloom
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May blossom
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May bug
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May Bumps
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-bush
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May butter
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-chafter
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-cherry
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-chick
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-chit
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May curlew
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May Day
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-December
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May dew
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-drink
sense: Terms derived from May
word: may duke
sense: Terms derived from May
word: mayduke
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May examination
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Mayey
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Mayie
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Mayfair
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-fern
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May fish
sense: Terms derived from May
word: mayfish
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May flower
sense: Terms derived from May
word: mayflower
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May fly
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-fly
sense: Terms derived from May
word: mayfly
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May fowl
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-gad
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May game
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May gowan
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May grape
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May grass
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May gray
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-haw
sense: Terms derived from May
word: mayhaw
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May highflyer
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May Hill
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-house
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Maying
sense: Terms derived from May
word: maying
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-jack
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-king
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May lady
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May laws
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May lily
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-lord
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May Marian
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May meetings
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May Morning
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-morn
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-morning
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May parr
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May peal
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May pole
sense: Terms derived from May
word: maypole
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-pop
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May Queen
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May queen
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May races
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May Revolution
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-roll
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May rose
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-rose
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-sel
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-September romance
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-skate
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May skin
sense: Terms derived from May
english: from surname
translation: from surname
word: Mays Landing
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-sucker
sense: Terms derived from May
word: may tag
sense: Terms derived from May
word: maytag
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-term
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May thorn
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-Thurner syndrome
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Maytime
sense: Terms derived from May
word: may tree
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May Uprising
sense: Terms derived from May
word: may-weed
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-week
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May Week
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May whaap
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May whaup
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-White syndrome
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May wine
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May wool
sense: Terms derived from May
word: May-worm
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Maywort
sense: Terms derived from May
taxonomic: Cruciata laevipes
word: maywort
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Memphis in May
sense: Terms derived from May
word: mid-May
sense: Terms derived from May
word: ne'er cast a clout till May be out
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Queen of May
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Queen of the May
sense: Terms derived from May
word: sell in May and go away
sense: Terms derived from May
word: Sun of May
Related terms: Cinco de Mayo