quadrennial
adjective
Did you know?
Most things quadrennial occur every four years (that's the more common use). We can say, for example, that the U.S. presidential election is a quadrennial event. But we can also say that president's term in office is quadrennial, making good use of the "lasting four years" sense. The Latin combining form quadri- adds a factor of four to many English words: quadriceps (the thigh muscle, which has four parts), quadrilateral (a four-sided polygon), quadragenarian (a person in his or her 40s), and quadricentennial (a 400th anniversary), to name a few. The -ennial part of quadrennial has the same root as in biennial and centennial; all trace back to annus, the Latin word for "year."
Examples of quadrennial in a Sentence
Ian Nicholas Quillen, Forbes.com, 25 May 2025
One party wins a quadrennial election and has control of the White House and both houses of Congress, and then through a combination of overreach and incompetence, gets spanked in the midterms.
—Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 23 May 2025
From July 2 to 27, Switzerland is hosting the UEFA Women’s Euro Championships, a quadrennial event with 16 European teams competing across scenic Swiss getaways like Zurich, Lucerne, and Basel.
—Stephanie Vermillion, Vogue, 15 May 2025
The friendship appears to go beyond one between a leader of a World Cup host nation — the United States is co-hosting the next edition of the quadrennial tournament in 2026 with Mexico and Canada — and the head of global soccer.
—Tariq Panja, New York Times, 14 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for quadrennial
Cite this Entry
“Quadrennial.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quadrennial. Accessed 5 Jun. 2025.
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