Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Biennial |
BiennialAdjective1. Occurring every second year; "they met at biennial conventions". 2. (botany) having a life cycle lasting two seasons; "a biennial life cycle"; "parsnips and carrots are biennial plants often grown as annuals". Noun1. A plant having a life cycle that normally takes two seasons from germination to death to complete; flowering biennials usually bloom and fruit in the second season. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "biennial" was first used: 1621. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Biennial is a term meaning "once every two years."In botany and horticulture, a biennial plant lives for two years, for example Lunaria biennis.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Biennial."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A Biennial plant is a plant that takes between twelve and twenty-four months to complete its lifecycle. In the first year the plant grows leaves and stems (vegetative structures) and then it enters a period of dormancy over the colder months. The next spring/summer it produces fruit, flowers and seeds, and then dies.Under extreme climatic conditions a biennial plant may 'bolt' through the separate stages of its lifecycle in a very short period of time (eg.3 or 4 months instead of 2 years). This is quite common in vegetable or flower seedlings which were exposed to cold conditions before they were planted in the ground. This behaviour leads to many normally biennial plants being treated as annuals in some areas.
A plant's status as annual or perennial often varies based on location. For example, a perennial plant in Georgia might easily be an annual plant in Michigan. This is because climatic conditions play a large role in determining the length of a plants life-cycle. If a normally biennial plant is grown in extremely harsh conditions it is likely to be treated as an annual because it will not survive the winter cold. Conversely, an annual grown under extremely favourable conditions may have such a highly successful propogation rate that it give the appearance of being bi- or perennial.
Examples of biennial plants are parsley, silverbeet, Sweet William, and carrots.
See also annual, perennial.
REFERENCE
- http://www.orst.edu/extension/mg/botany/cycles.html
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Biennial plant."
Synonyms: BiennialSynonyms: biyearly (adj), two-year (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonyms: annual (adj), perennial (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Regularity of recurrence Periodicity | Hourly; diurnal, daily; quotidian, tertian, weekly; hebdomadal, hebdomadary; biweekly, fortnightly; bimonthly; catamenial; monthly, menstrual; yearly, annual; biennial, triennial; centennial, secular; paschal, lenten; |
Vegetable | Annual; perennial, biennial, triennial; exotic. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Biennial |
| Specialty definitions using "biennial": BIENNIAL REPORT ♦ Longitudinal data ♦ Panel data. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "biennial": Quinquennial. (references) |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Fourth biennial and twenty-seventh consecutive convention, U.M.W. of A. held at Cleveland, Ohio, Sept. 9, 1919. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | 6th Biennial Convention, Nat'l Women's Trade League, 6/4 to 9, 1917. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Glowing stairs" by Aytun Çelebi Commentary: "Glowing stairs from biennial, istanbul." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | HPIV-2 causes annual or biennial fall outbreaks. (references) | |
HPIV-1 causes biennial outbreaks of croup in the fall (presently in the United States during odd numbered years). (references) | ||
Business | The biennial event is ranked the world's top air show for developing new business by an independent U.S. survey. (references) | |
There are no major trade fairs in the UK for the automotive components industry comparable in importance to Automechika and Equip Auto. The SMMT stages a biennial event 'Autoquipeurope' (April 29 - May 2, 2001) at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham. (references) | ||
Italians place the automobile at the top of their wish list and consider it a "status symbol", but strangely enough spend less compared to other European car owners in car-care, maintenance and comfort -- approximately $500 a year. However, Italian legislation is also compelling car owners to consider safety and the adoption of quality components in order to pass the biennial car inspections. (references) | ||
Economic History | Japan | During the most recent biennial price revision, undertaken in April 2000, the average price reduction for three major product categories (PTCA catheters, pacemakers and orthopedic implants), where U.S. firms have captured a preponderance of the market, was 4.5 percent. (references) |
Iceland | Iceland hosted the NATO Foreign Minister' Meeting in Reykjavik in June 1987 and participates in biennial NATO exercises entitled "Northern Viking" in Iceland; the next exercises will be held in 2001. In 1997 Iceland hosted its first Partnership for Peace (PfP) exercise, "Cooperative Safeguard," which is the only multilateral PfP exercise so far in which Russia has participated. (references) | |
Political Economy | BAHRAIN | The government budget is prepared on a biennial basis. (references) |
Worker Rights | Denmark | In the private sector, salaries, benefits, and working conditions are agreed upon in biennial or triennial negotiations between the various employers' associations and their union counterparts. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Biennial" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 78.57% of the time. "Biennial" is used about 112 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 78.57% | 88 | 35,154 |
| Noun (proper) | 21.43% | 24 | 71,196 |
| Total | 100.00% | 112 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "biennial": biennial weeds. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "biennial": biennial-alumnus. | |
Ending with "biennial": quasi-biennial. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "biennial"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | bimë dyvjeçare, dyvjeçar. (various references) | |
Arabic | مرة كل سنتين, حؤول, دائم (abiding, ceaseless, constant, everlasting, frequent, lasting, lingering, permanent, perpetual, quinquennial, regular, standing, substantive, unfailing). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | който се случва през две години, двегодишен. (various references) | |
Chinese | 每两年. (various references) | |
Czech | opakující, dvouletý, dvouletá rostlina. (various references) | |
Danish | hvert andet år. (various references) | |
Dutch | tweejarig (two-year, two-year-old), tweejaarlijks. (various references) | |
Esperanto | dujara (two-year, two-year-old). (various references) | |
Farsi | دوساله , درخت دوساله . (various references) | |
Finnish | kaksivuotinen (two-year), joka toinen vuosi ilmestyvä. (various references) | |
French | bisannuel (biannual). (various references) | |
German | zweijährig (two years old, two-year, two-year-old). (various references) | |
Greek | διετήσ (second year), διετής (biannual). (various references) | |
Hebrew | דו שנתי. (various references) | |
Hungarian | kétnyári növény (biennial plant), kétéves, kétévenkénti. (various references) | |
Indonesian | setahun dua kali (biannual). (various references) | |
Italian | biennale (biyearly, two-year). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 二年生 (second-year university or high-school student, sophomore). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | にねんせい (second-year university or high-school student, sophomore). (various references) | |
Korean | 격년. (various references) | |
Manx | daa-vleintag, daa-vleeanagh. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | iennialbay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | bienal (biannual). (various references) | |
Romanian | bienal, plantã bienalã. (various references) | |
Russian | двухгодичный, двухлетний (biannual). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | bienale, dvogodišnjica. (various references) | |
Spanish | bienal. (various references) | |
Swedish | tvåårig (two-year-old). (various references) | |
Thai | เกิดขึ้นทุกๆสองปี. (various references) | |
Turkish | iki yıllık, iki yılda bir olan, iki yıl yaşayan bitki, iki yıl süren. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | дворічна рослина, дворічний (biannual). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | lâu hai năm hai năm một lần, cây hai năm. (various references) | |
Welsh | dwyflynyddol. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | biennium, bimus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "biennial": biennially, biennials. (additional references) | |
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"Biennial" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Bagenal, Baxendall, Bennell, bicennial, Bienal, bienial, bienio, Bienne, bienniel, bienniial, biennual, bienual. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "biennial" (pronounced bīe"nēul) |
| 6 | -ī e" n ē u l | triennial. |
| 5 | -e" n ē u l | bicentennial, centennial, decennial, millennial, perennial, quadrennial. |
| 4 | -n ē u l | ceremonial, colonial, testimonial, intracranial, lineal, matrilineal, matrimonial, menial, patrilineal. |
| 3 | -ē u l | industrial, actuarial, adverbial, adversarial, advertorial, aerial, alluvial, ambassadorial, antibacterial, arboreal, Ariel, arterial, bacterial, biaxial, binomial, biomaterial, bronchial, burial, cereal, coaxial, collegial, colloquial, conspiratorial, convivial, curatorial, custodial, dictatorial, directorial, editorial, endometrial, entrepreneurial, equatorial, ethereal, extraterrestrial, extraterritorial, filial, fluvial, gubernatorial, immaterial, immemorial, imperial, terrestrial, territorial, janitorial, jovial, laryngeal, magisterial, malarial, managerial, marsupial, material, medial, memorial, mercurial, microbial, ministerial, myocardial, nomenclatorial, parochial, pictorial, pluvial, polynomial, primordial, professorial, prosecutorial, proverbial, pseudopodial, radial, raptorial, remedial, reportorial, sartorial, secretarial, senatorial, serial, tracheal, trivial, tutorial, venereal, vestigial, vitriol. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-e-i-i-l-n-n" | |
-1 letter: aniline, biennia. | |
-2 letters: anilin, bailie. | |
-3 letters: alibi, alien, aline, anile, benni, biali, binal, blain, blini, elain, inane, liane, linen, linin. | |
-4 letters: able, anil, bail, bale, bane, bani, bean, bile, bine, blae, blin, elan, ilea, ilia, inia, lain, lane, lean, lien, line, linn, nabe, nail, nine. | |
-5 letters: ail, ain, alb, ale, ane, ani, bal, ban, bel. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-e-i-i-l-n-n" | |
+1 letter: biennials. | |
+2 letters: biennially, inclinable, intangible. | |
+3 letters: bipinnately, cannibalise, cannibalize, inalienable, inalienably, indefinable, indefinably, infrangible, intangibles, langbeinite, linebacking, vinblastine. | |
+4 letters: bicentennial, bimillennial, brilliantine, cannibalised, cannibalises, cannibalized, cannibalizes, indeclinable, indefinables, interminable, interminably, labyrinthine, langbeinites, linebackings, maintainable, nebulization, nonlibraries, unimaginable, untenability, vinblastines. | |
+5 letters: bicentennials, bimillennials, brainchildren, brilliantines, conditionable, inconceivable, inconceivably, indispensable, indispensably, inexplainable, nebulizations, nonequilibria, uninhabitable. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Images: Digital Art 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
