biweekly Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Use semi-weekly for something that happens twice a week. Bi-weekly and semi–weekly are confusing because many people use bi-weekly to mean twice a week (when they should use semi-weekly instead). Something that occurs semi-weekly, by contrast, occurs every half-week, or twice a week. Something that occurs bi-weekly occurs every other week, in other words, once every two weeks. There is an easy way to cut through the confusion by remembering other words that use these same prefixes, and have obvious meanings.

If you can be reasonably sure that your readers will not misunderstand your meaning, use bi-weekly to mean every two weeks, just like a bicycle has two wheels. I will conclude by giving you a memory tool that helps when you need to choose semi-weekly or semi-weekly. The correct spelling is biweekly and not bi-weekly. Hyphens are not used after the prefix bi- unless the root word starts with the letter I. Still, use bi-weekly for something that occurs every two weeks, like a paycheck.

Biweekly is most commonly used to refer to the cadence of meetings or paychecks. In both cases, it’s commonly understood to mean twice monthly or once every other week, usually taking place on the same day of the week. For maximum biweekly meaning clarity, writing “every 2 weeks” or “twice a week” is advisable (regardless of correctness or incorrectness of “biweekly” in either sense). This means that paychecks will be issued once every two weeks, usually on the same day.

1. Take a (break/brake) and (pore/pour) over this (cache/cachet/cash) of questions about commonly confused words.
2. Use semi-weekly for something that happens twice a week.
3. A semiweekly meeting, on the other hand, occurs twice a week.
4. Another synonym for biweekly is semiweekly, which means “twice a week.” The prefix semi- means half or partially.

It has become common practice, especially in informal writing and spoken English, to use bi-weekly in each of these situations. Biweekly means twice a week or once every other week, though it’s more commonly used to refer to the latter. Biannual is more straightforward, as it’s only used to mean twice a year.

What Does “Biweekly” Mean? Definition and Examples

We’ll dive deeper into the meaning of biweekly, why it sometimes confuses people, provide synonyms to avoid uncertainty, and discuss other time-related words that use the bi- prefix. But what about when you’re at the mercy of English as it’s wielded by others? For, as anyone who pays attention to our work surely recognizes, we are at the mercy of the language. We diligently record the English lexicon in both its measured expansions and its wild proliferations, and any insistence by us that it favor the former over the latter is as whispers into a gale.

Uncommon Words Related to Love

Another synonym for biweekly is semiweekly, which means “twice a week.” The prefix semi- means half or partially. So while most people use it to mean once every two weeks, both definitions are grammatically correct. It’s important to provide context as to which definition you’re using when developing a meeting agenda or other documents for other people. Biweekly can mean twice a week or once every two weeks, but most people use it to refer to the latter. There are times, however, when a biweekly meeting on your work schedule may occur twice a week.

What is the Difference Between Bi-Weekly and Semi-Weekly?

A semiweekly meeting, on the other hand, occurs twice a week. British people use the word fortnight—which derives from the old English word for “fourteen nights”—to refer to events that occur once every two weeks. Although this is an acceptable synonym for biweekly, it’s not a common term for American English speakers.

Biweekly and bimonthly each have a pair of meanings that are unhelpfully at odds with one another. Those meanings exist, and we cannot ignore them. While biweekly is one of the most commonly confused words with the bi- prefix, it’s not the only one. These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘biweekly.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Biweekly means both, but most American English speakers use it to refer to something occurring every other week or twice monthly.