Monthly

Monthly is a term used to describe events, measurements, or publications that occur or are issued once per calendar month. As an adjective it describes frequency; as an adverb it modifies verbs (e.g., paid monthly). As a noun it can denote a publication released every month or a salary, report, or subscription period that recurs each month.

Etymology: monthly derives from Latin mensualis via Old French mensuel, from mensis “month.” The word is anchored in the calendar month rather than the lunar cycle, though many historical calendars linked months to the moon. The spelling and meaning have remained stable in many languages.

Calendar and timekeeping: in the Gregorian calendar, there are twelve months with lengths ranging from 28 to 31 days. The concept of monthly time is central to budgeting, payroll, and administrative processes that align with monthly cycles.

Usage in business and data: monthly payments and subscriptions are common; monthly reports compile data for a one-month period; monthly recurring revenue tracks subscriptions on a month-by-month basis. In statistics, data are often aggregated monthly to observe trends over time.

In general, monthly is a stable, widely used temporal unit across finance, publishing, and data analysis.