biannual

Pluralbiannuals

1. 1
   adjective

   Taking place twice in each year.

   The two presidents agreed to hold biannual meetings, one in each capital.

   Members receive a biannual newsletter every spring and fall.

   Similarsemiannual, half-yearly

2. 2
   adjective

   Occurring once every two years.

   The club's biannual election, held every other year, comes around again next spring.

   The data were grouped into biannual periods, each covering two full years.

   Similarbiennial

   Note

   Usage authorities object to this sense, and for a practical reason: biannual also means twice a year, so a reader cannot tell which schedule is meant. The unambiguous word for every two years is biennial; for twice a year it is semiannual. When the timing matters, as with a meeting, an election or a renewal, write biennial or every other year rather than risk the misreading.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   Something that occurs twice each year, such as a journal published twice annually.

   The review began life as a biannual and became a quarterly once its readership grew.

   Several small literary biannuals folded when printing costs rose.

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