A
leap year (also known as an
intercalary year or a
bissextile year) is a year containing one additional day (or, in the case of
lunisolar calendars, a month) added to keep the
calendar year synchronized with the
astronomical or
seasonal year. Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat in a
whole number of days, calendars that have the same number of days in each year drift over time with respect to the event that the year is supposed to track. By inserting (also called
intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year that is not a leap year is called a
common year.