# Is there a word for"every four months?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 18, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824 "2010-03-18T00:41:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/1 "2010-03-18T00:41:31Z")
Monthly: once a month Quarterly: once every three months ???: once every four months Semiannually: once every six months ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/2 "2010-03-18T00:42:26Z")
Seasonal is an approximation. ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/3 "2010-03-18T00:45:54Z")
[Triannual?](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/triannual) ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/4 "2010-03-18T00:50:43Z")
Thrice-yearly. ---
**Author:** ![Apex\_Rogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@Apex\_Rogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apex_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/5 "2010-03-18T00:51:40Z")
If you take bimonthly to mean once every two months, perhaps bi-bimonthly? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/6 "2010-03-18T00:54:11Z")
Quadrimestrical or quadrimestral ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/7 "2010-03-18T00:56:41Z")
triannual ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/8 "2010-03-18T00:59:23Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > triannual [Yup](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/triannual). (Not to be confused with “triennial”, meaning once every three years.) ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/9 "2010-03-18T01:28:38Z")
Thanks. It looks like the short answer is “yes,” but it’s definitely not a common word, not appearing in the “regular” [m-w.com](http://m-w.com). ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/10 "2010-03-18T01:39:53Z")
well there is that very rare and unused business term…quarterly 🙂 I’ve also heard that some ivory tower institutions use something similar. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/11 "2010-03-18T01:42:16Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > there is that very rare and unused business term…quarterly But as the OP noted, “quarterly” means “once a QUARTER”, i.e., every **three** months, not every **four** months. ETA: I don’t mean to sound snarky but I’m genuinely curious: did you really not know the difference between “quarterly” and “every four months”? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/12 "2010-03-18T01:45:45Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > But as the OP noted, “quarterly” means “once a QUARTER”, i.e., every **three** months, not every **four** months. > ETA: I don’t mean to sound snarky but I’m genuinely curious: did you really not know the difference between “quarterly” and “every four months”? 🙂 might have meant something there. Of course I went to a school that operated on a semester system. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/13 "2010-03-18T01:52:49Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > 🙂 might have meant something there. Of course I went to a school that operated on a semester system. It was a bad joke. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/14 "2010-03-18T12:33:35Z")
[Trimestral](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Trimestral) ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/15 "2010-03-18T14:12:20Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > [Trimestral](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Trimestral) But that means once every trimester, i.e., four times each year or three times in the average human pregnancy. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/16 "2010-03-18T14:21:57Z")
[Triforce.](http://www.zelda-infinite.com/files/music/loz/triforce.mid) ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/17 "2010-03-18T15:02:58Z")
Does triannual have to be every four months - or does it just mean 3/year? Obviously anything that occurs every 4 months will occur 3 times per year, but not everything that occurs 3 times per year necessarily occurs every 4 months. Take for instance, something that occurs on April 5, June 16 and December 8 every year. Could such a thing be called a triannual occurence? If so, then triannual wouldn’t fully describe something that occurs once every 4 months (although it wouldn’t be incorrect to call such a thing triannual). If you can’t call such a thing triannual, then what would you call it? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/18 "2010-03-18T15:24:36Z")
Heptadeciweekly ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/19 "2010-03-19T00:06:46Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > Does triannual have to be every four months - or does it just mean 3/year? Obviously anything that occurs every 4 months will occur 3 times per year, but not everything that occurs 3 times per year necessarily occurs every 4 months. But the same issue arises with any such word. Yearly, monthly, weekly, etc. Yearly doesn’t necessarily mean that something happens on exactly the same day each year. I’m about to have my yearly visit to our UK office. Last year it was in September. ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824/20 "2010-03-19T02:24:30Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Heptadeciweekly The “deci” prefix means “one tenth”. I think you meant “hepta **deka** weekly”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-every-four-months/532824.md?page=2)