anos

Anos is the Portuguese plural of the noun ano, meaning year. It is used to denote a span of one or more calendar years and appears in expressions of duration, age, and time references. The singular form is ano, and the plural is anos; for example, dois anos, três anos, or uma pessoa de vinte anos. Phrases such as há muitos anos mean “many years ago,” and em dois anos means “in two years.”

In other Romance languages, the equivalents differ: in Spanish the standard form is años (with a tilde); in Galician it is anos. The term in Portuguese derives from Latin annus, with the plural formed by adding -s. The word is masculine in Portuguese; the definite article is o and the indefinite is um.

Common compounds include ano bissexto (leap year), fim de ano (end of the year), and ano civil (calendar year). The word is used in various contexts with adjectives and numbers and is central to expressions of time, aging, and planning. It should not be confused with terms in other languages that resemble it visually but differ in spelling or meaning.