Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A period of 14 days; two weeks.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The space of fourteen days; two weeks.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The space of fourteen days; two weeks.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun chiefly UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand A period of fourteen nights; two weeks.
  • adverb After a fortnight has passed.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a period of fourteen consecutive days

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English fourtenight, alteration of fourtene night, fourteen nights : Old English fēowertēne, fourteen; see kwetwer- in Indo-European roots + Old English niht, night; see nokwt- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Contracted form of Old English fēowertȳne ("fourteen") niht ("nights"). Compare sennight.

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Examples

Comments

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  • I was nearly thirty before I realised that it's called a fort-night because it's fourteen nights long.

    December 2, 2006

  • I've just realised now (and I'm a bit older than thirty)!

    November 25, 2007

  • Uh ...

    September 1, 2008

  • ? bilby?

    November 10, 2008

  • I can't count that high :-(

    November 10, 2008