monthly

monthly — adjective

1. happening, appearing, or being done once in each month, as part of a regular sch

1.adjectiveA2
Definition

happening, appearing, or being done once in each month, as part of a regular schedule.

Example

The team holds a monthly meeting to discuss the project's progress.

monthly + noun (meeting, report, fee)

Shirin pays a monthly fee for her unlimited bus pass.

Common collocations
  • monthly meeting
  • monthly report
  • monthly fee
  • monthly newsletter
  • monthly subscription
Synonyms
  • regular

    broader meaning — any fixed interval (weekly, monthly, yearly)

  • periodic

    more formal; may imply irregular intervals rather than exactly once a month

Grammar Patterns

monthly + noun

Usage Note

Used only before a noun; cannot be used after a linking verb like 'is' or 'seems'. For example, you can say 'a monthly report' but not 'the report is monthly' — use 'the report comes out monthly' instead.

2. describes money that is set or required for a single month's use, such as rent,

2.adjectiveB1
Definition

describes money that is set or required for a single month's use, such as rent, a salary, or an insurance premium.

Example

Christopher's monthly rent is due on the first of each month.

monthly + rent / salary / premium for money paid per month

The loan agreement sets a fixed monthly payment of eight hundred dollars.

Common collocations
  • monthly rent
  • monthly payment
  • monthly salary
  • monthly premium
  • monthly installment
Synonyms
  • per-month

    informal hyphenated form, e.g. 'a per-month rate'

Grammar Patterns

monthly + noun (payment, salary, rent, premium)

Usage Note

Common with financial terms such as rent, salary, payment, premium, fee, and interest. Unlike sense 1, which focuses on frequency, this sense focuses on the duration or calculation period for money.

Common Mistakes

I pay my rent monthly' (when you mean the cost covers one month).
I pay a monthly rent of $1,000.
When used as an adjective before a noun, 'monthly' describes how the amount is set; when used as an adverb after the verb, it describes the frequency of payment.

monthly — noun

monthly — adverb

Word family

  • month
    nounA1
  • bimonthly
    adjectiveC1
  • bimonthly
    adverbC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Monthly is the most specific of these three — it refers strictly to something that happens or appears once each month. Regular is broader: it means happening at evenly spaced intervals of any length (hourly, daily, weekly, etc.) and is also used for things that follow a consistent routine unrelated to calendar cycles, such as 'regular exercise'. Periodic is more formal and can describe events that occur at set intervals but may not be exactly uniform — a periodic health check might be recommended every two years, for example. Use monthly when the 30/31-day cycle is essential to the meaning ('a monthly train pass'), regular when the interval is unspecified or less important ('regular dental visits'), and periodic for formal or scientific contexts ('periodic review of safety procedures').

regular ↗periodic ↗monthly ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • on a monthly basis

Prepositions

  • on a monthly basis

Etymology

Proto-Indo-EuropeanProto-GermanicOld EnglishEnglish

Formed in English by adding the suffix -ly to 'month'. The word 'month' comes from Old English 'mōnaþ', which traces back to the Proto-Germanic '*mēnōþs' and ultimately to the Proto-Indo-European root '*mēns-' meaning 'moon'. The connection between 'moon' and 'month' reflects the fact that a month was originally measured by the lunar cycle. The suffix -ly (from Old English '-lic') turns the noun into both an adjective and an adverb, just as with 'daily', 'weekly', and 'yearly'. The word has been used in English since before the 12th century with essentially the same meaning — something occurring every moon cycle.