Posted by Sterling on 31/1/2009, 11:14:41, in reply to "Re: bi-annually"
68.220.236.166
I don't know how to make a link, but Dictionary.com says:
biannual
1. occurring twice a year; semiannual
2. occurring every two years; biennial
It seems to me that if English were a sensible language, we would banish the ambiguoys biannual and use the other two. But, as we all know, English is not a sensible language.
By the way, I had a single-door car in high school. It started as a two-door coupe, but by the time I bought it for one hundred dollars fifteen years later, the passenger side door had been dented in and did not open. So I really did have a one-door!
--Previous Message--
: Hi Lale,
:
: there are actually two different spellings -
: officially - although not everybody uses them:
:
: biennially - every other year
: biannually - twice a year
:
: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biennially
:
: Friederike
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: Did you guys know that bi-annually could mean
: "once
: every two years" (like bi-weekly) and it can also
: mean twice a year. Makes it very ambiguous, doesn't
: it?
:
: It reminds me the "two-door car" in Turkish.
: In Turkish, when you say a four-door car, it means a
: car with four doors. When you say a single-door car,
: it means a car with one door on each side of the car.
:
: But, if you say a two-door car, it can mean
:
: - a car with two doors in total
: or
: - a car with two doors on each side of the car, i.e. 4
: doors in total.
:
: Lale
:
:
:
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