half-yearly
"half-yearly" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“half-yearly” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of which there are two in a year; once every six months semiannual; biyearly.
Corpus desk
Index EN-half-yearly · half-yearly · English
half-yearly · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | half-yearly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “half-yearly” in English
Rare enough to double-check
half-yearly is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Of which there are two in a year; once every six months semiannual; biyearly.".
half-yearly doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From half-year + -ly; or half- + yearly. The correct English form is half-yearly, spelled H-A-L-F---Y-E-A-R-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Of which there are two in a year; once every six months semiannual; biyearly.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how half-yearly appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
However, a Carlisle newspaper got hold of the story, and at the half-yearly meeting of the Caledonian Railway Company, held on March 17, 1863, a shareholder, Mr. Meiklem, questioned the Chairman, Lt.-Col. Salkeld, regarding a "Chase of Engines," described in the newspaper article. The Chairman admitted that the statements made in the article were perfectl…
Etymology
From half-year + -ly; or half- + yearly.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.