Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Occurring twice each year; semiannual.
  • adjective Occurring every two years; biennial.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Occurring twice a year: arbitrarily distinguished from biennial (which see).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Occurring twice a year; half-yearly; semiannual.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Occurring twice a year; half-yearly; semiannual, twice-yearly.
  • adjective proscribed Occurring every two years; biennial.
  • noun Something occurring twice each year.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective occurring or payable twice each year

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

bi- +‎ annual

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Examples

  • One critic sardonically called the biannual architecture show now up in Venice "the biggest, most glamorous architecture show on earth."

    Todd Reisz and Rory Hyde: Reclaim Bahrain Todd Reisz 2010

  • One critic sardonically called the biannual architecture show now up in Venice "the biggest, most glamorous architecture show on earth."

    Todd Reisz and Rory Hyde: Reclaim Bahrain Todd Reisz 2010

  • One critic sardonically called the biannual architecture show now up in Venice "the biggest, most glamorous architecture show on earth."

    Todd Reisz and Rory Hyde: Reclaim Bahrain Todd Reisz 2010

  • The children came two years apart, as regular as some kind of biannual publication; Looloo, seventeen, being the youngest, and also the best-looking and the most popular in the family.

    V. V.'s Eyes Henry Sydnor Harrison 1905

  • I recently attended the biannual Slow Food Congress in Turin, where the entire aim of the gathering was to celebrate regional heritage.

    Italian Innovation and Tradition Bruce Palling 2010

  • Although Brazil is expected to produce less coffee this year as part of its biannual low-output season, when trees naturally produce fewer beans, the government's forecasting agency still expects a record off-crop of 43.5 million 60-kilogram bags in the 2011-12 crop year.

    Coffee Searches for A New Caffeine Fix Caroline Henshaw 2011

  • Montgomery County uses WOW's formula in gathering information for its biannual report on how much income is needed to be "self-sufficient" and live in the county without government assistance.

    Price tag for 'basic economic security' rising, report says Carol Morello 2010

  • Those findings were released Wednesday in a biannual report card on minority educational attainment by the American Council on Education, with financial backing from the GE Foundation.

    College Diversity: Colleges More Diverse, But Racial Gaps Persist AP 2010

  • The high-priced Koch confabs have become a biannual ritual among Obama's super-rich foes.

    Eric Boehlert: Fox News And the Phony Koch Brothers Defense Eric Boehlert 2012

  • Mr. Leterme said that Belgium already has mechanisms in its laws to prevent wages from rising faster than those in Germany, France and the Netherlands — part of biannual negotiations between unions and business groups that are ongoing.

    Belgium's Leterme Pushes Back Against Germany Matthew Dalton 2011

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