Biweekly

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Biweekly, sometimes referred to as fortnightly, is a reference to an event that occurs once every two weeks. A two week interval is equivalent to one fortnight. An example of a biweekly event would be the production of some magazines or the payday of some companies.

fort·night·ly [fawrt-nahyt-lee]adjective, adverb, noun, plural. –adjective 1.occurring or appearing once a fortnight. –adverb 2.once a fortnight. –noun 3.a periodical issued every two weeks.

There are fifty-two weeks in a year of twelve months, making for a possible 26 biweekly events in a year. This is a greater number than if such events were held twice a month, due to the fact that most months have more than four weeks (28 days). However, biweekly is often thought of incorrectly as twice a month. Twice a month is called "semimonthly," not biweekly.

According to Webster's dictionary, Biweekly can also be a reference to an event that occurs twice per week. Given the ambiguity and unscientific nature of this denotation, some authorities recommend avoiding the term where precision is required.

[edit] See also

Look up biweekly in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Spelling biweekly with an embedded hyphen is incorrect. This error stems from a common misinterpretation of the syllable separator found in printed versions of the dictionary. The syllable separator is actually a dot, but is mistaken as a dash.

[edit] References and Notes

1. "biweekly". Online dictionary. Merriam-Webster. http://www.webster.com/dictionary/bi-weekly. Retrieved on 2008-02-19. 
2. "biweekly". Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford. http://www.askoxford.com/results/?view=dev_dict&field-12668446=biweekly. Retrieved on 2008-02-19.