What does bi weekly and bi monthly mean

Every dictionary we have checked agrees with those definitions. If you ever subscribe to a biweekly or bimonthly publication, you will need to make sure you understand the terms. Job done…. We agree that the shortest way is not always the best.

Unfortunately, this is another example of how the language has evolved or devolved. Some dictionaries list only the one definition, however Dictionary. For example: Teresa visits her parents in Manila twice each year. OR Teresa visits her parents in Manila once every two years. For example, most people get paid bi-weekly that is, 26 paychecks a year but my company pays me semi-monthly 24 paychecks a year. The examples equated biweekly and semimonthly because that is how they are defined in the dictionary.

You gave some good examples of why it is so important to understand the exact terms when either of these words is being used. And for our American readers, fortnightly means occurring once in a fortnight 14 days. By the way, neither biweekly nor bimonthly is hyphenated. Many people think that since bifurcating or bisecting something divides it, then biweekly must mean to divide the week; but they misunderstand the derivation of the word. The reason that bifurcating something divides it is because it causes it to have two bi- forks furcates or branches.

Bisecting creates two sections. Over time this confusion has become so widespread that the words biweekly, bimonthly, etc. It is interesting to note, from a historical viewpoint, the original meanings of either twice a week or every two weeks emerged around the same time — , although the meaning of twice a week is believed to predate every two weeks. So this is not a new confusion of terms, but based in history. We may be evolving the language to two different prefixes to avoid confusion.

The confusion is easy to explain if you think of it in terms of period and frequency and ambiguous association of the word parts. Back to words, these correspond to associating the parts like this: biweek ly or bi weekly with the the parentheses in either of two positions.

This analysis applies to all the periods week, month, year the same way. This would make the semiannual ly association the preferred one, and it would mean once every half year, or twice per year. Someone noted that these words are not hyphenated. I could see where hyphenating them might indicate the alternate association, but of course that assumes you know what the usual association is!

However, we hope no one receives a letter or email explaining that the semiannual meeting is held semiannually! Because weeks are of fixed length and months are not, bi-weekly ie.

Semi-monthly should have been applied in this instance. This highlights the subtle difference between the bi- and semi- prefix when applied to a temporal word. If your employer tells you that you get paid semi-monthly ie. Semi- can always mean bi- but bi- may not necessarily imply semi-.

I love to add to the confusion. This whole thread of responses gives a debate about the evolving usage of these words. It has been politely and professionally enjoined by all of the participants, which speaks well of all of you. But that has been alluded to in the thread.

So, if that is correct, then we are seeing some evolving language use at an interesting time in its development. They study, among many language phenomena, how word meanings change over time. Because in the end, one can see that word and phrase usage is a community convention. And I believe there are some examples where those in authority positions on language usage have tried valiantly, but failed to stop an incorrect usage from arising, becoming common, and finally becoming accepted.

So, is it too late to stop these prefixes from becoming confusing? Can the English teachers and makers of dictionaries and people who publish style manuals across the land make a campaign to assert their authority and make sure that it returns to a clear case:.

But then the problem is that people use words quickly and with only slight effort to choose correctly, so there will always be the pressure for the confusion to arise again. After a whole generation attests to the shining success of our grammarians in helping clarify the use of our entire language community, I assume the confusion would begin again to slowly creep in. On the other hand, perhaps a concerted effort could be mounted again as often as necessary.

Sorry for the length of this post if it gets accepted. Our practice is to inform our readers as to what is currently considered acceptable and let them decide for themselves if there are multiple options.

Quite often it will depend on the context and the situation. Being paid every two weeks is much different than being paid semimonthly. As stated earlier by Sebastian, his company does pay semimonthly 24 paychecks a year. Your company pays biweekly. To avoid confusion, you may want to substitute the actual time frame for these terms.

I know what weekly is once a week. The reason I pause is: does the prefix apply to the frequency of the events or to the period of the events? The correct answer of course is, semi refers to half the period, not half the frequency. But it cannot be deduced. It has to be memorized. Just remember one that you would never misuse, such as my favorite, a bicentennial. Nobody would ever confuse that one and say a bicentennial should be celebrated twice per century. By the way, there are some terms for which it really does matter.

Try making the incorrect substitution for terms like bipedal? Using the possibility of equivalence would mean we could walk on half a leg, ride on a device with one half of a wheel, or have someone be mentally ill with one-half of a mental state instead of two diametric ones.

If I get paid semi monthly, should my pay checks be more for the months that have three paychecks in it? That means you get 24 paychecks a year. A person who gets paid biweekly every two weeks gets 26 paychecks a year.

If a worker is earning a known annual salary, then it all comes out the same whether it is divided by 24 and paid semimonthly or whether it is divided by 26 and paid biweekly. Factor in an increase in cultural diversity and we have a society where a growing majority misuse words and, over time, redefine the English language.

At the current rate, in another years, bi-weekly may mean a few times a week, every several weeks or anything in between. Wait, I have an idea. Of course, to avoid ambiguity, one could go with semi-quad-weekly twice every four weeks.

Just saying. I agree. It is a sad thing. I often find myself envisioning a pile of hacked off antlers when I hear the way asked and else are pronounced. Did they miss grade school? Eric and Jane have excellent points at the top of this post.

You should visit your aunt more often. Did Jane Straus pass away on February 25, ? If so…. For two years Jane waged a heroic battle with brain cancer. Unfortunately, medical science only has treatments but no cure for this disease. That did not deter Jane, though, from continuing to be fully dedicated to her family, friends, and her GrammarBook. Lester Kaufman, her husband of 23 years, along with the skilled staff of our web master, Weblinx Inc.

In your definition of this it says these cause tremendous confusion and I was even more confused when you said that bi-monthly is every other month and twice a month. How can it be both? And this is not even a recent development. Whether you look up bimonthly on dictionary. As we stated in our Bi vs. Combining the two would just add to the confusion. The word quarterly is clear and uncomplicated. Someone please explain this…Company A pays bi-weekly. I want to purchase health insurance through them.

My options are.. Why is there a difference in price? Paying semimonthly means you are making 24 payments each year two payments each month. My DD brought home her 4th grade spelling with the word biannual meaning twice a year but biweekly and bimonthly as meaning every 2 weeks or months, respectively. It seems even the teachers are confused by it.

Biweekly is not the same as semi monthly. If I get paid biweekly, I will receive 26 paychecks in a year. If I get paid semimonthly, I will get receive 24 weeks a year.

Although it is a small difference, it is a difference. The examples in the blog equated biweekly and semimonthly because that is how they are defined in the dictionary.

Your example shows why it is so important to understand the exact terms when either of these words is being used. In many countries — notably Costa Rica and Nicaragua — workers are paid semimonthly, 24 equal paychecks per year. Everyone then receives a full months pay as a government-mandated bonus at the end of the year. So the end result was that they were paid for 26 weeks, the proper number of weeks in a year. The workers I knew when I lived there were not confused, saw the bonus as the employer giving them the biweekly pay that was due for their daily toil.

How do I prepare a bimonthly schedule for a soccer tournament. I need an example in form of spreadsheed or tell me how do i go about doing the schedule. Preparing spreadsheets is beyond the scope of our blog. Bi- means two and semi- means half. An accepted mis-usage is still wrong. The prefix bi- has a fixed meaning and the prefix semi- has a fixed meaning and authorities are sometimes wrong. Bi-monthly has only one correct definition and that is every two months.

The interpretation of bi-monthly as twice per month might be officially accepted but it is still wrong. As we have responded to a number of previous posts, our job is to inform our readers about dictionary definitions and interpret and reflect the grammar rules.

Our blog does not encourage incorrect usage. We are simply pointing out that these words are often confused because the language has changed over time. Wow, I just want to commend everyone for the lively discussion. I have to admit I did get quite a few chuckles out of this, as well. It was, however, quite entertaining and a good way to waste a few minutes. In the email I was writing, I changed biweekly to every other week because obviously everyone has a different interpretation of the word.

Until I can retrain everyone who reads my emails or speaks with me to understand the difference, though, I will not be able to use the prefix bi or semi. Bi means two. Semi means half, partially or incompletely. That being said. I can see the trouble. We do not know who or what you disagree with, unless it is the dictionary. We do not advocate any particular way of using these terms, but we do suggest substituting actual time frames to avoid confusion.

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Log in Sign Up. More Words At Play. Merriam-Webster's Words of the Week - Oct.

Time Traveler. Love words? Need even more definitions? Ask the Editors 'Everyday' vs. What Is 'Semantic Bleaching'? Biweekly vs. Biweekly pay schedule advantages. Greater consistency: With a biweekly pay schedule, employees know they have paychecks coming on the same day every other week. With a semimonthly pay schedule, employees may get paid on the same dates every month, but these dates may land on different days of the week. Having consistency in this regard can help employees better manage their finances.

More paychecks: Though you have smaller paychecks each pay period compared to a bimonthly or semimonthly pay schedule, biweekly pay equates to more paydays and therefore, two "bonus" paychecks. Even though you make the same amount of money regardless of your pay frequency, a biweekly pay schedule makes it easier to reduce debt or save more money in the months you receive an additional paycheck. Easy to calculate overtime: While salaried employees are exempt from collecting overtime, hourly employees are not.

Running on a biweekly pay schedule makes it easier to calculate overtime pay compared to businesses running on a bimonthly pay schedule. For example, if an employee's extra hours fall between two different semimonthly pay periods, you need to make adjustments to account for this which can result in confusion for the person handling payroll. Bimonthly pay schedule advantages. Larger paychecks: Though you only get paid twice per month, a bimonthly pay schedule yields larger paychecks.

Keep in mind that even though your paychecks may be larger, you paid the same amount at the end of the year no matter your pay frequency. Less processing time: Compared to a biweekly pay schedule, operating on a bimonthly frequency slightly reduces the amount of time spent on payroll processing. Essentially, you run payroll less often which results in less work for the person in charge of your company's payroll.

This makes it easier to budget your payroll and can help reduce the likelihood of errors. Managing deductions: Since benefits typically run on a monthly basis, a semimonthly pay frequency makes benefits such as healthcare deductions easier to manage. In comparison, running on a biweekly pay frequency means you have to take care of these deductions using the total amount of annual pay periods.

Biweekly pay schedule disadvantages. Complicated bookkeeping: When you have 26 pay periods per year, it means you have two months that feature three pay periods as opposed to two. When this happens, it complicates bookkeeping and makes it harder to project your future cash flow. Essentially, your payroll debits may not always align with your payroll credits on your balance sheet.

Learn more about these two systems to help you decide which one is the best fit for your company. Biweekly pay is issued every other week for a total of 26 times per year. Most companies pay on the same day every two weeks, most often on Fridays. Employees often prefer this type of payroll schedule for a few reasons, including:. With a bimonthly payroll, also called a semimonthly payroll, employees are paid twice each month. Most companies pay on the same dates every month, usually the 1st and the 15th.