biweekly

American  

[bahy-week-lee] / baɪˈwik li /

adjective

1. occurring every two weeks.

2. occurring twice a week; semiweekly.

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noun

plural

biweeklies

1. a periodical issued every other week.

adverb

1. every two weeks.

2. twice a week.

biweekly British  

/ baɪˈwiːklɪ /

adjective

1. every two weeks

2. (often avoided because of confusion with sense 1) twice a week; semiweekly See bi- 1

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noun

1. a periodical published every two weeks

Usage

What does biweekly mean? 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.

Commonly Confused

See bi- ¹.

Etymology

Origin of biweekly

First recorded in 1880–85; bi- ¹ + weekly

Example Sentences

Matches will be biweekly with all schools competing at the same shared location.

From Los Angeles Times

Molly had told her a hundred times, and she still fielded the questions on a biweekly basis.

From Literature

For the past 18 months, Davis has organized biweekly water drives for people mostly not on Brewster’s county water system.

From The Wall Street Journal

The engineering manager I worked with scheduled biweekly check-ins, even when she was just acting as the person’s safety net.

From The Wall Street Journal

This season has had an unusual cadence of episodes, with the first two arriving on a weekly schedule, then biweekly before the arrival of Episode 5, which aired three weeks later on Wednesday.

From Los Angeles Times