What Is Quinquennial?
A quinquennial is a unit of time that means five years. If something is quinquennial, it happens once every five years or lasts for a period of five years.
Definition
Quinquennial is a word used to describe a time span of five years. It can mean two closely related things:
- A single period that is five years long.
- Something that happens every five years again and again.
So a quinquennial event is an event that takes place once in five years, and a quinquennial plan is a plan that covers five years.
History / Origin
The word quinquennial comes from Latin:
- quinque means five.
- annus means year.
Over time, Latin changed into many modern languages. The word was taken into English to talk about periods of five years, especially in areas like government plans, studies, and finances.
Symbol & Abbreviation
There is no one official symbol for a quinquennial, but people use simple short forms in writing, such as:
- 1 quinquennial or 1 quinquennium for one five year period.
- 5 yr or 5 y for five years.
- Sometimes 5 yr period is written instead of the word quinquennial.
The unit is always based on the year, so it is not an official metric or SI unit like second or meter.
Current Use Around the World
Today, quinquennial is mostly used in formal or technical areas, such as:
- Government and planning many countries make five year plans for the economy or development, which are quinquennial plans.
- Statistics and surveys some censuses, health checks, or large surveys are done every five years.
- Education and research schools or universities may have quinquennial reviews to check quality every five years.
- Finance some investments, reports, or bonds are planned on a five year period.
In everyday life, people more often say five years rather than quinquennial, but the meaning is the same.
Example Conversions
Here are simple conversions using a quinquennial as five calendar years. For easy math we will use one common year as 365 days, not counting leap days.
- 1 quinquennial equals 5 years.
- 1 quinquennial is about 60 months 5 × 12 months.
- 1 quinquennial is about 260 weeks 5 × 52 weeks.
- 1 quinquennial is about 1 825 days 5 × 365 days.
- 1 quinquennial is about 43 800 hours 1 825 × 24 hours.
- 1 quinquennial is about 2 628 000 minutes 43 800 × 60 minutes.
- 1 quinquennial is about 157 680 000 seconds 2 628 000 × 60 seconds.
If you include leap years, the exact number of days and seconds will be a little higher, but the idea is the same. It is always close to five years.
Related Units
Quinquennial is part of a family of words that describe how often something happens in years:
- Annual every 1 year.
- Biennial every 2 years.
- Triennial every 3 years.
- Quadrennial every 4 years.
- Quinquennial every 5 years.
- Decennial every 10 years.
Other time units that connect to quinquennial are:
- Year base unit in this group.
- Month about one twelfth of a year.
- Decade ten years, which is two quinquennial periods.
- Century one hundred years, which is twenty quinquennial periods.
FAQs
What does quinquennial mean in simple words
Quinquennial means something that lasts five years or happens once every five years. It is just a fancy word for a five year period.
Is a quinquennial the same as five years
Yes. As a time unit, a quinquennial is equal to five years. You can think of 1 quinquennial as 5 years.
Where is the word quinquennial usually used
It is mostly used in formal writing about government plans, research, reviews, and some financial reports that are done every five years.
Is quinquennial an official scientific unit
No. The official SI unit for time is the second. Year and quinquennial are everyday and planning units, not strict scientific base units.
How many quinquennial periods are in a decade
One decade has ten years, so it has 2 quinquennial periods of five years each.
What is the noun form of quinquennial
The noun form is often quinquennium, which means one five year period. Quinquennial can be both an adjective and a noun in common use.