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PlainSpell

fortnightly

/ˈfɔːɹtˌnaɪt.li/adjective, adverb, noun

fortnightly is spelled F-O-R-T-N-I-G-H-T-L-Y: 11 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 38,863rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, fortnightly means “Occurring once in a fortnight; once every two weeks” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in fortnightly?

Letters11: F-O-R-T-N-I-G-H-T-L-Y
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 38,863rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is fortnightly?

Fortnightly appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 38,863rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce fortnightly?

  • /ˈfɔːɹtˌnaɪt.li/

Fortnightly has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-fortnightly.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of fortnightly

  • fortnightlies plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does fortnightly mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Occurring once in a fortnight; once every two weeks.

adverb

  1. 1

    once in a fortnight; once every two weeks

noun

  1. 1

    A publication issued fortnightly (once every two weeks).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Fortnightly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbimensuel (occurring once in a fortnight), bimensuellement (once in a fortnight), quinzomadaire (a publication issued fortnightly; a bi-weekly)
Germanvierzehntäglich, zweiwöchentlich (occurring once in a fortnight), alle vierzehn Tage, alle zwei Wochen (once in a fortnight), Halbmonatsschrift (a publication issued fortnightly; a bi-weekly)
Portuguesebissemanal (occurring once in a fortnight), quinzenalmente (once in a fortnight)
Spanishbisemanal (occurring once in a fortnight), bisemanalmente (once in a fortnight)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does fortnightly come from?

From fortnight + -ly.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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