Skip to content

"December" in seven languages

MeaningDecember

Spanish

diciembre

/diˈθjembɾe/

masc.inherited

French

décembre

/desɑ̃bʁ/

masc.inherited

Italian

dicembre

/diˈtʃɛmbre/

masc.inherited

Portuguese

dezembro

/deˈzẽbɾu/

masc.inherited

Romanian

decembrie

/deˈtʃembrie/

masc.learned

The Latinate month names replaced folk ones such as undrea for December.

Catalan

desembre

/dəˈzɛmbɾə/

masc.inherited

English

December

/dɪˈsɛmbɚ/

from Latin/French · Latin DECEMBER, via Old French

English → ItalianDecemberdicembreCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

DECEMBREM‘the tenth month’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

The 'tenth' month is the twelfth because the oldest Roman year began in March. Spanish broke the open e into ie; the c before e softens three ways: θ, s, tʃ.

English relatives: decimal, decade, decimate

Sound laws at work

C before E and IStressed short E breaks into ie

Learn it

Practice the Time deckQuiz a friend on it

In a sentence

  • esLa Navidad es en diciembre.
  • frNoël est en décembre.
  • itNatale è a dicembre.
  • ptO Natal é em dezembro.
  • roCrăciunul e în decembrie.
  • caNadal és al desembre.
  • enChristmas is in December.

More in Time

All Time words