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Why does bi-weekly mean "every two weeks?" This has always bothered me because intuitively it should mean "twice a week." (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago by LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca

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Similar case in point: "bimonthly" means "twice a month." That makes sense.

But the definition for "bi-weekly" does not make sense.

What do you think?

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[–] rasensprenger@feddit.de 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Because "weekly" is kind of a fraction (1/week), and 2/week and 1/(2week) are very different, but both can be pronounced very similarly. Read kind of like (2-week)ly and 2-(weekly). Which is why both meanings are used, so you need to use context to disambiguate, or just guess if context isn't available.

This is also the reason why in this thread people say "semiweekly" is the other option, but they don't all use the same other option. You have the same, but inverse problem there.