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Periodic vs Biannual - What's the difference?

periodic | biannual |

As nouns the difference between periodic and biannual

is that periodic is newspaper while biannual is something occurring twice each year.

As an adjective biannual is

semiannual: occurring twice a year.

periodic

English

Alternative forms

* periodick (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Adjective

(-)
  • Relative to a period or periods.
  • Having repeated cycles.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1899, author=(Stephen Crane)
    • , title=, chapter=1 , passage=There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town. “Mason Rickets, he had ten big punkins a-sittin' in front of his store, an' them fellers from the Upside-down-F ranch shot 'em up […].”}}
  • Occurring at regular intervals.
  • Periodical.
  • (label) Pertaining to the revolution of a celestial object in its orbit.
  • For which any return to it must occur in multiples of k time steps, for some k>1.
  • (label) Having a structure characterized by periodic sentences.
  • (label) Relating to, derived from, or designating, the highest oxygen acid (HIO) of iodine.
    • Antonyms
    * (astronomy) non-periodic * (mathematics) aperiodic
    Derived terms
    (terms derived from periodic) * periodic classification * periodic function * periodic law * periodic system * periodic table
    Related terms
    * period * periodicity

    Etymology 2

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Of or derived from a periodic acid.
    • Derived terms
    * periodate * periodic acid English heteronyms ----

    biannual

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Semiannual: occurring twice a year
  • * 1980 , Jose D. Salas, 'Applied Modeling of Hydrologic Time Series', Water Resources Publication, ISBN 0918334373, page 448 section 8.9
    • The annual values were disaggregated into biannual' values. Then the ' biannual values were disaggregated into quarterly values. Finally the quarterly values were disaggregated into the desired monthly values.
  • * 1988 , Ursula Schneider & Michael Schratz, Permanent Education Between New Illiteracy and High Power Technology: 198 , Institute for the Comparative Study of Public Policy, University of New Orleans, ISBN 0962142301,introduction,
    • ...during the 1988 biannual symposia in February (New Orleans) and May (Innsbruck).
  • * 1992 , Simon J. Nuttall, European Political Co-operation , Oxford University Press, page 286,
    • ... the biannual meetings between the President of the European Council and the President of the United States were formalized, there were to be two meetings per year ....
  • * 2001 , Jack C. Harris, Jack P. Friedman, Real Estate Handbook , Barron's Educational Series, ISBN 0764152637, page 163,
    • Example: Under a lease, Abel is required to make biannual rent payments, ...
  • * 2008 , Royal College of Nursing website (UK)
    • Biannual newsletter: The Society publishes a twice yearly newsletter, called "Headlines"
  • Occurring once every two years.
  • * 1993 , World Bank, Developing the Occupied Territories: An Investment in Peace'', volume 4, ''Agriculture , ISBN 0821326910, page 1,
    • The relative share of agriculture in GDP of the West Bank (calculated on the basis of fixed 1986 prices, and as a two-year average to deal with the major biannual fluctuations in olive production) declined... .
  • * 1997 , Steven Blakemore, Intertextual War , Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, ISBN 0838637515, pages 190–192,
    • Thus he argues that the members of the National Assembly were independent from the constituencies that elected them, because the latter (the assemblies, administrative and elected) are "biennially renewed," as was the National Assembly.... This [being responsible to electors] is implicitly the case of the representatives in the National Assembly, who must also face biannual elections....
  • * 2001 , Kenneth I. Wolpin, Empirical Methods for the Study of Labor Force Dynamics , Routledge, ISBN 0415269407, page 84,
    • Now, after having solved the biannual' period problem back to period one of the ten ' biannual periods, i.e. quarters 77–84... .
  • * 2004 , Lee Penn, False Dawn , Sophia Perennis, ISBN 159731000X, page 380, footnote 3,
    • "The Earth Charter opens a new phase...." (Mikhail Gorbachev, as quoted in The Earth Charter Initiative, Biannual Report 2002–2003, Earth Charter International Secretariat, http://www.earthcharter.org/files/resources/Biannual%20Report.pdf, p 10,...).

    Usage notes

    Although biannual'' properly means twice a year, its conflation with (biennial) (once every two years) is quite common. For clarity, one can use ''twice a year or other synonyms instead.

    Derived terms

    * biannually

    Synonyms

    * semiannual, twice-yearly

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something occurring twice each year.
  • * 1995 , Xi yang yu wen yan jiu suo & Danjiang da xue, Tamkang Review , Graduate School of Western Languages and Literature, Tamkang University, page 366,
    • It was a biannual from April 1970 to October 1977 and has been a quarterly since fall 1978.