biennial
adjective
What do bimonthly and biweekly mean?: Usage Guide
Many people are puzzled about bimonthly and biweekly, which are often ambiguous because they are formed from two different senses of bi-: "occurring every two" and "occurring two times." This ambiguity has been in existence for nearly a century and a half and cannot be eliminated by the dictionary. The chief difficulty is that many users of these words assume that others know exactly what they mean, and they do not bother to make their context clear. So if you need bimonthly or biweekly, you should leave some clues in your context to the sense of bi- you mean. And if you need the meaning "twice a," you can substitute semi- for bi-. Biannual and biennial are usually differentiated.
Did you know?
Biennial conventions, celebrations, competitions, and sports events come every two years. Biennials are plants that live two years, bearing flowers and fruit only in the second year. (Carrots and sugar beets are two examples; since we're only interested in their roots, we don't wait another year to see their flower and fruit.) In contrast, semiannual means "twice a year". But no one can agree whether biweekly means "twice a week" or "every two weeks", and whether bimonthly means "twice a month" or "every two months". Maybe we should stop using both of them until we can decide.
Examples of biennial in a Sentence
Saman Shafiq, USA Today, 6 June 2025
In the final hours of the 2025 session, the Indiana legislature passed a biennial budget that cuts funding to all Indiana PBS and NPR stations, Roberts said.
—Alexandra Kukulka, Chicago Tribune, 4 June 2025
After all, there exist legions who will not miss the biennial festival for anything in the world—those of us who, religiously and ritualistically, take planes, trains and automobiles to reach a remote fishing village in Jamaica where some 3000 people gather in the name of the holy word.
—Baz Dreisinger, Forbes.com, 4 June 2025
With final passage Saturday of a major early childhood education bill, legislators will return Monday to begin their three-day push to Wednesday night’s adjournment deadline with a limited to-do list topped by adopting a biennial budget and voting on a bipartisan energy deal.
—Mark Pazniokas, Hartford Courant, 2 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for biennial
Cite this Entry
“Biennial.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biennial. Accessed 11 Jun. 2025.
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biennial
adjective
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