Biconfusing Tip of the Day

By Pete - April 20, 2007

Biannually and Semiannually both mean twice a year, biennialy mines every two years, and it just gets more confusing after that:

biannually and semiyearly: occurring twice a year
semiannually: occurring every six months or twice a year
biennially and biyearly: occurring every two years
semimonthly: occuring twice a month
bimonthly: occurring every two months; occurring twice a month
semiweekly: occurring twice a week
biweekly: occurring twice a week; occurring every two weeks

Yes, Bimonthly and Biweekly mean two completely different similar things. So my only question left is what does "ennial" mean?

Comments

Jay said…

Very useful info, indeed. I never really knew what things like that meant, so I vowed never to use them unless I had to. Is something really a shortcut if no one knows what it means? One clue for the "ennial." Flowers that return each year are called "perennial," so maybe "ennial" means "each year." Although that doesn't really work with biennially. Hm.

20 April, 2007 17:41