annual

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• adjective Recurring, done, or performed every year; yearly.
• adjective Of, relating to, or determined by a year.
• adjective Botany Living or growing for only one year or season.
• noun A periodical published yearly; a yearbook.
• noun Botany A plant that completes its entire life cycle in a single growing season.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Plants become annuals because of the limitations of the seasons. Some plants die outright at the approach of cold or dry weather and leave only their seeds to carry the species over to another season; these are the true annuals. Others, truly perennial in their native climates, become annual in short-season climates by being killed by frost; these are plur-annuals. Others carry themselves over by means of bulbs; these are pseud-annuals.
• Of, for, or pertaining to a year; yearly: as, the annual growth of a tree; annual profits; the annual motion of the earth.
• Relating to a year, or to the events or transactions of a year: as, an annual report.
• Lasting or continuing only one year, or one season of the year; coming to an end individually within the year: as, annual plants or insects.
• Occurring or returning once a year; happening or coming at yearly intervals: as, an annual feast or celebration.
• noun A mass said for a deceased person, either daily during a year from the day of his death, or on the recurrence of the day for a number of years; an anniversary mass; also the fee paid for it. Also called annal.
• noun A yearly payment or allowance; specifically, in Scotland, quit-rent; ground-rent. Also called ground-annual.
• noun A plant or an animal whose natural term of life is one year or one season; especially, any plant which grows from seed, blooms, perfects its fruit, and dies in the course of the same year.
• noun A literary production published annually; especially, an illustrated work issued near Christmas of each year.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• adjective Of or pertaining to a year; returning every year; coming or happening once in the year; yearly.
• adjective Performed or accomplished in a year; reckoned by the year.
• adjective Lasting or continuing only one year or one growing season; requiring to be renewed every year
• noun A thing happening or returning yearly; esp. a literary work published once a year.
• noun Anything, especially a plant, that lasts but one year or season; an annual plant.
• noun (R. C. Ch.) A Mass for a deceased person or for some special object, said daily for a year or on the anniversary day.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• adjective Happening once every year.
• adjective Of, for, or relating to a whole year, often as a recurring cycle; determined or reckoned by the year; accumulating in the course of a year; performed, executed, or completed over the course of a year. See also circannual.
• adjective botany (of a plant) Having a life cycle that is completed in only one growing season; e.g. beans, corn, marigold. See Annual plant in Wikipedia. Compare biennial, perennial.
• adjective entomology Living or lasting just one season or year, as certain insects or insect colonies.
• noun An annual publication; a book, periodical, journal, report, comic book, yearbook, etc., which is published serially once a year, which may or may not be in addition to regular weekly or monthly publication.
• noun botany An annual plant; a plant with a life span of just one growing season; a plant which naturally germinates, flowers and dies in one year. Compare biennial, perennial.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• adjective completing its life cycle within a year
• noun (botany) a plant that completes its entire life cycle within the space of a year
• noun a reference book that is published regularly once every year
• adjective occurring or payable every year