{"id":96,"date":"2008-07-29T01:14:56","date_gmt":"2008-07-29T01:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=96"},"modified":"2021-05-11T15:45:17","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T20:45:17","slug":"bi-vs-semi-weeklymonthlyannually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/definitions\/bi-vs-semi-weeklymonthlyannually\/","title":{"rendered":"Bi<\/em> vs. Semi<\/em> (weekly, monthly, annually)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Using bi<\/em> or semi\u00a0<\/em>in front of time periods can create tremendous confusion these days as definitions and style guidance continue to soften and blur.<\/p>\n

To illustrate this, we located the following definitions of words with the bi <\/em>or semi <\/em>prefix after researching both style books and dictionaries.<\/p>\n

Biweekly<\/em>: once every two weeks or twice a week
\nBimonthly:<\/em> once every two months or twice a month<\/p>\n

In addition, a biweekly publication<\/em> is issued every two weeks and a bimonthly publication<\/em> is issued every two months.<\/p>\n

Then we have this from\u00a0The Associated Press Stylebook<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Biannual<\/em>: twice a year, synonymous with\u00a0semiannual<\/em>; for “every two years,” use\u00a0biennial<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Consider these definitions as well:<\/p>\n

Semiweekly<\/em>: twice a week
\nSemimonthly:<\/em> twice a month<\/p>\n

Those of us who resolutely uphold precision might cling to Latin’s original intent for bi <\/em>and semi<\/em>: bi <\/em>= two, semi <\/em>= half (or twice). Such loyalty to Latin would give us biweekly<\/em> for “every two weeks” and semiweekly\u00a0<\/em>for “twice a week.”<\/p>\n

Conversely, those of us who note that the blurring of bi <\/em>and semi<\/em> will only get greater will avoid confusion altogether by stating the actual time frame. Instead of battle with biweekly\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0semiweekly<\/em>, we will say “every two weeks.” Rather than wrestle with bimonthly\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0semimonthly<\/em>, we will write “twice a month.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Using bi or semi\u00a0in front of time periods can create tremendous confusion these days as definitions and style guidance continue to soften and blur. To illustrate this, we located the following definitions of words with the bi or semi prefix after researching both style books and dictionaries. Biweekly: once every two weeks or twice a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-definitions"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4804,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/4804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}