Writing Dates in Words
In US English, dates are usually written Month Day, Year — e.g. April 23, 2026. When spelled out in words (contracts, invitations), you write the month, the ordinal day, and the year.
Rules
- The day is always an ordinal (first, second, thirty-first) in spelled-out dates — even if you write April 23 in numerals.
- For years 1000–1999 and 2100+, split the year into two halves: seventeen seventy-six, twenty twenty-six.
- For years 2000–2099, you can say either two thousand twenty-six or twenty twenty-six — both are standard.
- Use a comma between the day and the year (US). UK English often writes the 23rd of April 2026.
Examples
| Input | In words |
|---|---|
| 2026-04-23 | April twenty-third, two thousand twenty-six |
| 2000-01-01 | January first, two thousand |
| 1776-07-04 | July fourth, seventeen seventy-six |
| 1984-12-25 | December twenty-fifth, nineteen eighty-four |
| 2024-11-11 | November eleventh, two thousand twenty-four |
See also
- Spelling Money Amounts
How to write dollar amounts in words — for checks, contracts, and legal documents. Examples from $1 to $1,000,000. - Writing Numbers on a Check
Step-by-step: how to spell the amount on a US check, including cents, the word 'and', and common mistakes. - Ordinal Numbers
Ordinals tell position or rank — first, second, third, and so on. Here's the spelling for every ordinal from 1st to 100th. - Saying Phone Numbers in Words
Standard ways to pronounce and write out a US phone number digit by digit. - Spelling Fractions
Fractions in English combine a cardinal (top) with an ordinal (bottom). Here's the rule and a table of common fractions. - Spelling Decimal Numbers
How to read and write decimals like 3.14 or 0.005 in English — digit by digit after the point. - Spelling Negative Numbers
Negatives are spelled with the word 'negative' (or 'minus') before the number. - Million, Billion, Trillion, and Beyond
The short-scale names for large numbers used in the US — million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, and up.