Meanings
plural person-years
- One person's working time for a year, or the equivalent, used as a measure of how much work or labor is required or consumed to perform some task.
Meronyms: person-hour, man-hour < person-day, man-day < person-month, man-month
2 more examples
Altogether it took hundreds of person-years to build the bridge and dam, and such a payroll is not cheap.
This is especially true for Black women. the rate of deaths from breast cancer among Black women in their 40s was 27 per 100,000 person-years, compared to 15 per 100,000 person-years among White women, according to a 2023 JAMA Network Open study.
2024 May 8, Katia Hetter, “Mammograms are now recommended starting at age 40. Should you get one?”, in CNNSynonyms: man-year
Synonyms & antonyms
nounOne person's working time for a year, or the equivalent, used as a measure of how much work or labor is required or consumed to perform some task.
Origin
Compound of person + year, although, as with any such unit of measure (e.g., ton-miles, newton metres), the mathematical relationship of multiplication is simultaneously involved: X persons working during Y years = X × Y = Z person-years.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 人年
- 人年 (rénnián)one person's working time
Finnish henkilötyövuosi
- henkilötyövuosione person's working time
French année-homme
- année-hommeone person's working time
Greek ανθρωποέτος
- ανθρωποέτος (anthropoétos)one person's working time
Italian anno-uomo
- anno-uomoone person's working time
Japanese 人年
- 人年 (ninnen)one person's working time
Cite this entry
person-year. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/person-year
“person-year.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/person-year. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “person-year,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/person-year.
Source: person-year on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.