Word of the Day

: January 1, 2016

annus mirabilis

noun ann-us-muh-RAH-buh-lus

What It Means

: a remarkable or notable year

annus mirabilis in Context

"It has been an annus mirabilis for the college: the new dormitories were completed and we have increased enrollment to fill those buildings," announced the president.

"If he wins the tournament today, for the fourth year in a row, he will have claimed 11 titles in the season, which would beat his haul from his annus mirabilis of 2011." — Paul Newman, The Independent (London), 22 Nov. 2015

Did You Know?

To British poet John Dryden, the "year of wonders" was 1666. That was the year of a great British naval victory over the Dutch, as well as the date of the great London fire. When he titled his 1667 poetic review of 1666 and its events Annus Mirabilis, Dryden became one of the first writers to use that Latinate phrase in an otherwise English context. Annus mirabilis is a direct translation from New Latin, the form of Latin that has been used since the end of the medieval period (especially for scientific descriptions and classification). The phrase is not extremely common, but it is used by writers and historians to denote any particularly remarkable year.