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# The Good Oil Word of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/the-good-oil-word-of-the-day-464/
- Published: 2025-11-15T17:15:04.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-15T17:15:03.000Z
- Author: David Theobald
- Tags: General, Word of the Day

The word for today is…

biannual (adjective) -

1: occurring twice a year  
2: occurring every two years

Source : [Merriam-Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biannual?ref=goodoil.news)

Etymology : When we describe something as biannual, we can mean either that it occurs twice a year or that it occurs once every two years. So how does someone know which particular meaning we have in mind? Well, unless we provide them with a contextual clue, they don’t. Some people prefer to use semiannual to refer to something that occurs twice a year, reserving biannual for things that occur once every two years. This practice is hardly universal among English speakers, however, and biannual remains a potentially ambiguous word. Fortunately, English also provides us with biennial, a word that specifically refers to something that occurs every two years or that lasts or continues for two years.

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