Biweekly vs semiweekly

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Grammarist

Biweekly may mean occurring twice a week or occurring every two weeks. Biweekly may be used as an adjective or an adverb. In the United States biweekly may be used as a noun to describe periodicals, the plural noun form is biweeklies. Biweekly is derived from the prefix bi-, which means two, twice, double, doubly, occurring twice in every one or once in every two. It comes from the Latin bi-, meaning twice, double, and weekly from the Old English word wice, of Germanic origin, meaning succession, series.

Semiweekly means occurring twice a week. Semiweekly is an adjective that is derived from the prefix semi-, which means half, part, partly, twice, as it comes from the Latin semi-, meaning half, and weekly. In the United States semiweekly may be used as a noun, the plural noun form is semiweeklies. Semiweekly is often found hyphenated as in semi-weekly, but the Oxford English dictionary only lists it as one word, unhyphenated. Remember, biweekly may mean occurring twice a week or occurring every two weeks, semiweekly only means occurring twice a week.

Examples

The amendment did not specify what those deficiencies could be, but in the past the department has denied permission for biweekly pay periods if an employer is behind in pay, has other labor violations, is in financial trouble, or the workers face a hardship by waiting two weeks to receive their wages. (The New Hampshire Business Review)

The subject surfaced again recently when a caller to our radio program mentioned she got a notice from a financial services company stating the company would no longer debit her bank account for her biweekly mortgage payment. (The Akron Leader)

At the end of the summer of 1982, he moved to Albuquerque and spent most of the next year working full-time for the semiweekly New Mexico Sun newspaper. (The Santa Fe New Mexican)

He and one or two other Carleton students also meet semiweekly with 10 other members of the collaboration via the Internet. (The La Crosse Tribune)