[Vocabulary] biyearly - biannually or biennially

[inase]

Dictionaries say that "biyearly" means either "biannually (twice a year)" or "biennially (every two years)," probably depending on the context. In your everyday life, which meaning do you usually imply without no clear context?

I have no clear evidence but it seems that Americans usually mean "twice a week" by "biweekly."

Inase

 

[probus]

Biennially means once every two years. Bianually means twice a year. Biyearly I have never run across in my seventy years. Context is your only hope of guessing what the benighted author meant.

Biweekly means once every two weeks. Semi-weekly would in theory mean twice a week but is not in actual use, presumably because a week consists of an odd number of days.

 

[andrewg927]

I have seen "bicentennial" but I haven't seen "biyearly" either. That doesn't mean it can't be used. I think readers would still understand.

 

[Tdol]

I will use them in restricted contexts, though biyearly is new to me, The problem is that they are very widely misunderstood, like a twofold increase, where there are differences in the way people calculate them.

 

[SoothingDave]

To me, "biweekly" would be every two weeks. Same with "biannually" being every other year. I would use "semi-annual" to refer to a twice-yearly event.

Best to be explicit and not assume.