biweekly

Biweekly is commonly used to mean one of two things: once every two weeks or twice per week.

It can be used this way as an adjective, as in a biweekly meeting, or an adverb, as in We plan to meet biweekly. 

Yes, you can sometimes figure out what biweekly means from the context of the sentence. But not always. The term biweekly meeting might mean that it happens twice a week or every two weeks—both senses of the word are commonly used. Here’s the best (and maybe only) way to be perfectly clear: just say “twice a week” or “once every two weeks.”

Biweekly can also be used as a noun referring to a publication that’s published twice per week or once every two weeks (as opposed to a daily or weekly, for example).

Examples:

• New episodes of my biweekly podcast come out every other Monday. 
• Let’s plan to meet biweekly—every Tuesday and Friday.

The first records of the word biweekly come from the 1880s. The prefix bi- means “twice” or “two.” The suffix -ly, which usually forms adverbs, is used in biweekly to mean “every.” It’s used in the same way in several other units of time, including hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly.

Different prefixes can be added to weekly to indicate a different period of time, such as in triweekly (every three weeks or three times a week) and semiweekly (twice a week).

A lot of workers are paid biweekly—every two weeks. If a publication is published biweekly, it usually means it comes out every two weeks. But newspapers that are called biweeklies are most commonly published twice a week—such as on every Monday and Thursday. Such a newspaper can also be called a twice-weekly.

What are some other forms related to biweekly?

• biweeklies (plural noun)

What are some synonyms for biweekly?

• every two weeks
• twice a week
• semiweekly
• fortnightly

What are some words that share a root or word element with biweekly? 

• week
• biannually
• triweekly

What are some words that often get used in discussing biweekly?

• paid
• paycheck
• meeting
• newspaper
• publication
• quota
• rate
• schedule
• task
• regular
• routine
• release

Biweekly is commonly used to mean both “twice a week” and “every two weeks.” To avoid confusion, it’s a good idea to clarify exactly which one you mean.

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— Anne Kress (@NOVAPresKress) July 15, 2020

Let me just say that my biweekly appointment with the campus counseling center is really coming in clutch

— Maggie Regier (@maggienificentt) August 29, 2019

I never know if ‘biweekly’ is supposed to mean “twice a week” or “occurring once every two weeks”.

“A biweekly newsletter/podcast/etc.” OK but which one is it ?!?!

— Sara Soueidan (@SaraSoueidan) January 26, 2018

Is biweekly used correctly in the following sentence?

We plan to publish biweekly, on the first of every month.