Bi-weekly or semi-monthly?

Bi-weekly/semi-weekly  

bi-weekly or semi-monthly

For part of my career at Hewlett-Packard, we had meetings with our boss.  These periodic meetings were held every two weeks.  At times, discussions ensued about whether these meetings were bi-weekly or semi-weekly.  ( Semi-monthly , for that matter.)

Here is some insight to help you decide which term is correct.   The prefix bi means two and semi means half.

 With this in mind, bi-weekly means every other week (every two weeks.)  Semi-weekly would mean twice in a week–Once in each half of the week.

With that in mind, I guess our bi-weekly meetings were also semi-monthly meetings. I guess I would go with calling it an every two weeks meeting if I had to do it again.

Now you know.

2 responses to “Bi-weekly or semi-monthly?

  1. In some months, your bi-weekly meetings would be more frequent than semi-monthly. For example, if your meetings were held on Tuesdays or Wednesdays in January 2013, you could have had three bi-weekly meetings.

  2. Good point Gene. Thanks for pointing that out.