semi-weekly

Meanings

1. 1adjectivenot comparableformal

   Happening or appearing twice in each week.

   Grammar: Used before a noun: a semi-weekly newsletter.

   Patterns

   • a semi-weekly meeting
   • a semi-weekly newsletter

   The club holds semi-weekly practices on Tuesdays and Fridays.

   She subscribes to a semi-weekly newsletter about local news.

   The garbage truck makes semi-weekly collections in this district.

2. 2adverbnot comparableformal

   Twice a week.

   Grammar: Goes after the verb or at the end: the paper is published semi-weekly.

   Patterns

   • meet semi-weekly
   • publish semi-weekly

   The committee meets semi-weekly during the busy season.

   The magazine is published semi-weekly.

   She visits her grandmother semi-weekly.

Common combinations

semi-weekly meeting

A semi-weekly meeting keeps the team on track.

published semi-weekly

The paper is published semi-weekly.

semi-weekly schedule

We follow a semi-weekly schedule for training.

semi-weekly delivery

The farm offers a semi-weekly delivery of vegetables.

Synonyms and how they differ

twice-weekly

Twice-weekly is clearer and rarely misunderstood, while semi-weekly can be confused with every two weeks.

biweekly

Biweekly is ambiguous because it can mean twice a week or every two weeks, so it is risky in formal writing.

fortnightly

Fortnightly means every two weeks in British English, which is not what semi-weekly means.

bi-weekly

Hyphenated bi-weekly is still ambiguous, so give the days if clarity matters.

Opposites

Word family

week noun

a period of seven days

weekly adjective

happening once a week

semi-monthly adjective

twice a month

semiannual adjective

twice a year

Commonly confused: semi-weekly or biweekly?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “semi-weekly”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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