daymonthyear

Day-month-year is a date notation in which the day of the month is written first, followed by the month and then the year. In numeric form, it appears as dd/mm/yyyy or dd-mm-yyyy; in written form, dates are often expressed as 15 September 2024.

Used widely in Europe, much of Africa, the Middle East, parts of Asia, and many areas of Latin America, the day-month-year order aligns with local language and cultural conventions. In the United States, month-day-year is more common. Some contexts mix conventions, and formal writing or signage may spell out the month to reduce ambiguity.

Ambiguity can arise when only numbers are used. For example, 04/05/06 could be interpreted as 4 May 2006 or 5 April 2006 depending on locale, and two-digit years can complicate interpretation. Context, separators, and explicit month names help mitigate confusion, especially in international communications.

Standards and computing: International data exchange often relies on ISO 8601, which prescribes the unambiguous year-month-day format (YYYY-MM-DD). Many software systems store dates in a neutral, language-agnostic form but display them to users in day-month-year order when appropriate for the user’s locale. Writing dates with the month name or using an ISO-like format is common practice to ensure clarity across regions.