Levensjaar

Levansjaar is a Dutch term referring to the period of life expressed in completed years since birth. In everyday language it is used to describe age in developmental terms, for example a child is said to be in het eerste levensjaar (the first year of life) or in het derde levensjaar (the third year of life).

Usage and boundaries: A levensjaar corresponds to the interval between two birthdays. The eerste levensjaar covers birth up to the moment of the first birthday, het tweede levensjaar covers from the first birthday up to the second, and so on. This way of speaking emphasizes stages of development within a given year rather than a single age in years alone. In formal contexts such as pediatrics, demography, and statistics, levensjaren are used to define age cohorts or milestones with more fine-grained nuance than simple completed years.

Relation to other terms: The concept is closely related to leeftijd, which is a person’s age generally stated in years, months, or days. Levensjaar is particularly common when discussing early childhood development, vaccination schedules, or age-specific guidelines. The plural levensjaren is used when referring to multiple life-years or life-span considerations, such as milestones across several years or in life-table analyses.

Etymology: The word combines levens (life) and jaar (year), reflecting a year-by-year view of a person’s life from birth onward. While primarily used for young children, the term can be applied to any stage of life when describing age in yearly intervals.