Weekday

How to spell weekday

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce weekday

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does weekday mean?

1. nounAny day of the week other than Saturday or Sunday, typically a working day.

Weekday in a sentence

• The dentist only books appointments on a weekday.

• Train fares are cheaper if you travel on a weekday.

Where does weekday come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent native compound built from two of the oldest words in English. 'Week' descends from Old English 'wicu' or 'wucu', meaning a period of seven days, a word shared across the Germanic languages and ultimately tied to a root suggesting turning or succession. 'Day' comes from Old English 'dæg', meaning the period of daylight or a full 24-hour span, again with relatives throughout the Germanic family. The pairing 'weekday' appears in Old English as 'wicudæg' to mark an ordinary working day as distinct from a feast day or the sabbath. Because both halves are everyday words that stand on their own, the spelling holds no real surprises; the only thing to remember is that it is written solid, as a single closed compound, with no space or hyphen.

How the word is built

• week (a period of seven days)
• day (a 24-hour period)