Meaning & use
quarterly
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Happening, issued, or due once in each three-month period, so four times a year.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: a quarterly report, not a report that is quarterly.
Patterns
- a quarterly something
The company sends out a quarterly newsletter.
We make quarterly payments on the loan.
Her quarterly review is scheduled for early April.
adverbnot comparable
Once every three months; four times in a year.
Grammar: Describes how often an action happens: they meet quarterly.
Patterns
- be paid quarterly
- meet quarterly
The board meets quarterly.
Dividends are paid quarterly to all shareholders.
The magazine is published quarterly.
nouncountable
A magazine or journal that comes out four times a year.
Grammar: Countable: a literary quarterly, two academic quarterlies.
She submitted her essay to a respected history quarterly.
The library keeps every issue of the local arts quarterly.
Several quarterlies reviewed the new novel.
Word forms
| plural | quarterlies |
|---|
Common combinations
- quarterly report
- The quarterly report showed a small rise in sales.
- quarterly earnings
- Investors waited for the quarterly earnings announcement.
- quarterly meeting
- Our quarterly meeting is held in January, April, July and October.
- pay quarterly
- You can pay your water bill monthly or quarterly.
- quarterly tax payment
- Freelancers often make a quarterly tax payment.
Synonyms and how they differ
- every three months
- This plain phrase says the same thing but is wordier and usually sounds less businesslike than quarterly.
- seasonal
- Seasonal ties events to the time of year and weather, while quarterly is strictly about a fixed three-month rhythm, which may not match the seasons.
- periodic
- Periodic means happening at intervals of any length, so it is vaguer than quarterly, which fixes the interval at three months.
Opposites
Word family
- quarter noun
- one of four equal parts, or a three-month period of a financial year
- quarter verb
- to divide into four parts
- quarterfinal noun
- a match in the round with eight players or teams left
- semiannual adjective
- happening twice a year
Commonly confused: quarterly or biannual? quarterly or biennial?
quarterly vs biannual
Biannual usually means twice a year, so it is a different frequency from quarterly, which is four times a year.
quarterly vs biennial
Biennial means once every two years, which is far less frequent than quarterly.
Practice
A company that releases its financial results quarterly will do so how many times a year?
Choose one answer.
Quarterly means once every three months, which gives four times a year. Twice would be semiannual, and twelve times would be monthly.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “quarterly”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.