Biannual, biennial, and semiannual are adjectives that describe the frequency at which events occur. Also, remember that “bi-annual” has a second meaning; it can also signify an event that happens every other year. However, keep in mind that you can also use “bi-annual” to refer to something that happens twice a year. In this case, you won’t imply exact timing or if an event occurs precisely six months apart. A semiannual financial report is a company’s unaudited financial report for the previous six months.
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Semiannual refers to events that occur twice every year, usually six months apart. It is commonly used in a financial context, such as how often bonds pay interest. The term can be confused with other similar-sounding terms, such as biennial, which means an event occurring every two years.
- In this article, I will clarify biannual vs. semiannual; as part of the discussion, I will include several examples of each word in a sentence to demonstrate its use in context.
- For example, if the bond paid the yield annually, the bondholder would receive $100 a year.
- Like biannual, semi-annual also means “happening twice each year.” However, semi-annual is slightly more specific than biannual.
- If a company’s fiscal year runs from January to December, the semiannual report would cover the company’s financials from January through June.
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However, writers must balance clarity with concision, making semiannual a useful choice for something that happens at that frequency. Biennial is an adjective meaning “takes place every two years.” It means that a recurring event happens one year, then misses a year, and takes place again the following year, and so on. In a botanical context, “biennial” can be both an adjective to describe that a plant has a two-year lifecycle and a noun to refer to plants with a lifecycle of two years. On the other hand, the prefix “semi” means “half.” So, if you are attending an event held semi-annually, it happens once in each half of the year – about every six months – for a total of two times per year. The prefix “bi” means “two” or “twice.” So, anything that happens two times per year regardless of the time between the occurrences is biannual.
Like biannual, semi-annual also means “happening twice each year.” However, semi-annual is slightly more specific than biannual. So, if you have a “semi-annual” event, it means there is a six-month gap between the two. Semiannual is simply a word that denotes an occurrence twice a year. For example, a company could have company parties semiannually, a couple could celebrate their marriage semiannually, and a family could go on vacation semiannually. I’m not sure what word came first, semiannual or biannual, but, in the modern day, most people use semiannual to avoid any confusion that arises from biannual vs. biennial.
What Is the Difference Between Biannual and Semiannual?
If a company’s fiscal year runs from January to December, the semiannual report would cover the company’s financials from January through June. This would provide investors with insight into how the company has performed in the first half of the year and provide an indicator of how it may perform for the remainder of the year. In this article, I will clarify biannual vs. semiannual; as part of the discussion, I will include several examples of each word in a sentence to demonstrate its use in context. So, to answer “semi-annual vs. bi-annual, which one to use,” You can effectively choose between the two words based on whether the timing of the occurrences is a relevant factor. You also should know that “bi-annual” can also mean something that happens every other year, whereas semi-annual only has one meaning. Use “semi-annual” if an event occurs precisely six months apart during the year.
Biannual is an adjective which means occurring twice a year, the adverb form is biannually. Although you can often use either semi-annual or bi-annual, a good trick for remembering their differences is to look at the meanings of each prefix. You should use the term “bi-annual” to refer to an event that occurs every other year. Often, you will find competitions, contests, special events, or performances using “bi-annual” rather than semi-annual. Semi-annual vs. bi-annual have nearly identical meanings that it can be head-scratching to know which one to use. biannual vs semiannual In this article, we’ll teach you the differences between these two confusing terms and the best choice when describing something that happens twice a year.
On the other hand, British English favors joining the prefix to another word using a hyphen. Since semi- means half or part, it will be easy to remember that you only need to wait part of a year before something semiannual happens again. Since the prefix semi- refers to half or part or something, you can use it to remind yourself that something that is semiannual only goes part of a year before happening again.
When to Use Biennial
“Biannual” is an adjective used to describe events occurring twice a year. In order to fully understand this term, we need to know where it derives from. The prefix “bi-,” meaning twice, comes from Latin, while “annual” refers to one year. For example, if the bond paid the yield annually, the bondholder would receive $100 a year. Now, if the bond paid the yield semiannually, the bondholder would receive $200 a year.
A third adjective, biennial, describes something that occurs every other year. This term is often confused with biannual due to their similarity in spelling. I will also show you a memory tool that you can use next time you can’t remember whether you’re describing something that is biannual or semiannual. Learn English online and practice with an English tutor on LiveXP to figure out the difference and how to use these words. Semi is a prefix, and American English tends to use prefixes before the base word without a space or hyphen.
Other times, very similar words will refer to different ideas, introducing confusion. We are a community of people passionate about learning languages. Learn your favorite language in 1-on-1 online lessons wherever you are whenever you want. I’m an ESL teacher with over 7 years of experience in providing original content. I really like writing educational articles which may help others learn some aspects of English.
Semiannual is generally used when an event happens twice a year and six months apart. Both terms are often confused with “biennial,” which means an event occurring every two years. Semiannual is important to understand when purchasing bonds. A bond is usually described in the yield that it pays the bondholder. It is important to know if this 5% is paid annually or semiannually to understand the payment you would receive as the bondholder.
Financial statements or reports are frequently published on a quarterly (four times per year) basis. It is rare that corporations publish financial statements only semiannually. They do, however, publish an annual report, which per the definition, occurs once every year. For the sake of clarity, it would be best to avoid all of these terms and simply write twice a year or every other year.
