vuosiluvun

Vuosiluku is a Finnish term that refers to the year number part of a date. The word combines vuosi, meaning year, and luku, meaning number. The form vuosiluvun is the genitive singular, used to indicate “of the year number” or “the year’s number” in a sentence, for example in phrases like vuosiluvun määrittäminen or vuosiluvun muutos.

In practice, vuosiluku denotes the four-digit year value that identifies when an event occurred or when a document was created. It is the numeric representation of the year, as opposed to the full date (which may include day and month) or to the concept of a calendar year as a period. Finnish texts often distinguish between vuosi (the year as a unit of time), päivämäärä (the full date with day, month, and year), and vuosiluku (the year number used in dating).

Usage and context vary by field. In archives, bibliographies, and historical records, the vuosiluku is used to label and sort items by year. In syntactic terms, vuosiluku frequently appears in compounded or compound-genitive constructions, such as vuosiluvun merkitys or vuosiluvun tarkastelu, where the discussion centers on the year number itself rather than the date as a whole.

Related concepts include kalenteri (calendar), kronologia (chronology), and päivämäärä (date). Understanding vuosiluku helps clarify precise dating in Finnish texts, particularly when the year number is the focus of discussion or data labeling.