Fortnightly meaning: what a fortnight is and how fortnightly pay works
Fortnightly means every two weeks, the same schedule as biweekly pay in the US. How the word is used, how many paychecks it makes, and how to budget for it.
Checked October 27, 2026
Fortnightly means happening once every two weeks, or every 14 days. A fortnightly payment or paycheck is the same schedule as US biweekly pay: 26 a year, 14 days apart.
What fortnightly means
Cambridge Dictionary defines fortnightly as happening every two weeks. A fortnight is a period of two weeks, or 14 days. In the US, people more often say biweekly.
Fortnightly works as an adjective (a fortnightly meeting) and as an adverb (the committee meets fortnightly). Merriam-Webster also lists a noun, a publication that comes out every fortnight. The word grew out of fourteen nights: Merriam-Webster traces fortnight to Old English fēowertȳne niht, which is how older English counted days.
Unlike biweekly, fortnightly has only one meaning. It never means twice a week. That is why some employers and many bills use it when they want to be clear.
What a fortnightly payment means
A fortnightly payment is money paid or collected once every two weeks: a paycheck coming in, or a bill, rent, loan or subscription going out. It is always 26 a year.
The size of the payment is not set by the word. If a $1,000 monthly bill is paid in half-size amounts of $500 every fortnight, you make 26 payments of $500, which is $13,000 a year, or 13 monthly payments instead of 12. If a fortnightly payment is quoted to you, multiply by 26 and divide by 12 to compare it with a monthly bill.
How fortnightly pay lines up with your month
Fortnightly pay is 26 paychecks a year. A calendar month is not a whole number of fortnights, so most months hold two paychecks and a couple of months hold three. If you are paid every other Friday, count the Fridays.
A bill that is fortnightly is the same idea in reverse. A $40 charge every two weeks is not $80 a month. It is $40 x 26 = $1,040 a year, or about $87 a month.
Fortnightly, biweekly and semimonthly
In the US, fortnightly and biweekly mean the same schedule. Semimonthly is different: it is twice a month on set dates, 24 times a year. The IRS's withholding tables list biweekly as 26 pay periods and semimonthly as 24.
When two of you share bills, a fortnightly paycheck and a monthly rent do not meet neatly. A good habit is to move your share of rent into a bill account on each payday, so the rent is covered by the time it is due.
A worked example: a fortnightly bill
- A gym charges $40 every two weeks.
- Charges per year: 52 / 2 = 26.
- Cost per year: $40 x 26 = $1,040.
- Cost per month on average: $1,040 / 12 = $86.67.
- That is $6.67 a month more than the $80 you would get by counting two charges a month.
More words like this in money words, in plain English.
Questions people ask
What does fortnightly mean?
Fortnightly means every two weeks. A fortnight is 14 days.
Is fortnightly the same as biweekly?
In US pay, yes: one paycheck every 14 days, 26 a year. Biweekly can also mean twice a week, but fortnightly never does.
What is fortnightly pay?
Pay that arrives every two weeks, 26 times a year, on the same weekday.
What is a fortnightly payment?
A payment made every two weeks, 26 times a year. A $400 fortnightly payment is $10,400 a year, or about $867 a month.
What does fortnightly mean in a sentence?
A fortnightly meeting is held every two weeks. A fortnightly paycheck arrives every other Friday, say. The committee meets fortnightly uses it as an adverb.
Is fortnightly twice a month?
No. Twice a month is semimonthly, 24 times a year. Fortnightly is every 14 days, 26 times a year, so two months a year hold three payments.
How many fortnights are in a year?
26, since there are 52 weeks and a fortnight is two of them.
Sources
4 sources · read October 27, 2026
Every number on this page comes from merriam-webster.com, dictionary.cambridge.org and irs.gov. If a source has changed since, the source is right.
Wonderful gives general information. It isn't a financial or tax advisor.