Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for August for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's word is "August" — the month, pronounced /ˈɔːɡəst/; and "august" the adjective, pronounced /ɔːˈɡʌst/, meaning impressive or dignified.
Narrator: As a month, August is the eighth of the year; as an adjective, august describes someone commanding deep respect.
Narrator: In plain English, the month marks late summer, and the adjective marks grandeur.
Narrator: Both trace to the same Roman source — Emperor Augustus, whose title meant "venerable" or "majestic".
Narrator: The month was renamed in his honour from "Sextilis", the sixth month in the old Roman calendar.
Narrator: The adjective kept the emperor's grandeur directly — an august assembly, an august institution.
Narrator: Note the stress shift distinguishes them — AU-gust the month, au-GUST the adjective.
Narrator: So the calendar and the dictionary both carry one Roman emperor's ego, quietly, to this day.
Narrator: So remember: August the month and august the adjective share one source — an emperor who named a month after his own majesty.
Speaker A: I never noticed "august" is also a real word meaning dignified, not just the month! Is that just a coincidence?
Speaker B: No coincidence at all — both come from Emperor AUGUSTUS, whose title literally meant "venerable" or "majestic". The month was renamed in his honour; the adjective simply kept his grandeur as an ordinary English word.
Speaker A: So the Romans really did rename a month after themselves?
Speaker B: Repeatedly — July is named for Julius Caesar the same way. August used to be called "Sextilis", the sixth month, before the calendar shifted and Augustus claimed his own slot!
Speaker A: Example sentences?
Speaker B: Month: "we're travelling in August"; "the exam results come out in late August". Adjective: "an august panel of judges"; "the august halls of Parliament" — holidays, and grandeur.
Speaker A: Common mistakes?
Speaker B: The stress shift is the giveaway — AU-gust for the month, au-GUST for dignified. And note the adjective is quite formal; don't use it casually, it belongs in ceremony and serious writing!
Speaker A: Close relatives?
Speaker B: For the adjective: "dignified", "venerable", "majestic", "distinguished". For the month: no real synonym — it's simply August! Both keep one emperor's lasting vanity.
Speaker B: Let's use "august" in AI prompts — for date logic in the month sense, and formal tone in the adjective sense.
Speaker A: So august could mean the calendar month or a dignified tone, depending on context?
Speaker B: Right. For scheduling, you'd write:
Prompt: Add seasonal pricing to my booking app that automatically raises rates every August, our peak month, and reverts on the first of September.
Speaker A: Good — what about the adjective sense for tone?
Speaker B: The formal-copy prompt:
Prompt: Give my institution's about page an august, dignified tone — formal language, no exclamation marks, and a sense of long-established credibility.
Speaker A: Reports scheduled for August?
Speaker B: The reporting prompt:
Prompt: Schedule my annual report generation for the first working day of August each year, pulling twelve months of data ending in July.
Speaker A: One more?
Speaker B: The reminders prompt:
Prompt: Send a renewal reminder every August to subscribers whose plan started that month, regardless of which year they originally signed up.
Speaker A: August clarifies whether we mean the calendar or the tone.
Speaker B: Exactly — specify which sense of august, and the AI won't confuse a date rule with a style rule.
August — meaning in Arabic & definition More A courses GL Dictionary