quarterly

The word “quarterly” means happening once every three months. In plain terms, happening, or a publication appearing, four times a year.

Here is “quarterly” used in a sentence: “The board holds quarterly meetings.”

Depending on how it is used, “quarterly” can be an adjective, a noun and an adverb.

“Quarterly” is a fairly common word in modern English.

“Quarterly” has 3 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: happening once every three months.

Quarterly means every three months — four times a year — because it divides the year into four quarters. The confusion comes from the "four" hiding inside "quarter," but a quarter of a year is three months, so quarterly payments, reports, and meetings happen four times annually.

In a standard calendar year, the quarters run January–March (Q1), April–June (Q2), July–September (Q3), and October–December (Q4). Quarterly deadlines therefore usually fall at the end of March, June, September, and December, though companies using fiscal years may set different quarter boundaries.

Quarterly means once every three months, or four times a year. Semiannually — also called biannually — means twice a year, every six months. Biennially, which is easily confused with biannually, means once every two years.

As a noun, a quarterly is a publication that comes out four times a year, typically a journal or magazine. Academic and literary journals are often published on this schedule, which is why "Quarterly" appears in so many of their titles.