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Talk:Ensign (LDS magazine)

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Pronounciation

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The redundant and contradictory pronunciation description at the bottom of the article should be removed. I'm going to remove it unless there are objections. --Mailman-zero 04:50, 30 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Biannual

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Biannual means twice yearly. Biennial means once every two years. The conference edition comes out biannually—May and Nov. every year. I thought it was best to avoid the term "semiannual" since the church (incorrectly) calls one of its conferences during the year a "semiannual" conference and the other one an "annual" conference. Clearly, the should both be called "semiannual". Since that word in Mormonism is rife with confusion, I thought it better to stick with "biannual". Rich Uncle Skeleton (talk) 07:19, 27 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I checked Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary. Here are the definitions from that web site for the adjective forms:
Biannual: 1) occurring twice a year 2) biennial
Biennial: 1) occurring every two years 2) continuing or lasting for two years
Semiannual: occurring every six months or twice a year
Which one do you think better matches the context in which it is used?
Dealing with the terms the the church uses for its own conferences is a separate issue. — Val42 01:05, 29 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Either "biannual" or "semiannual" is approrpriate for the context in which it's being used here, in my opinion. Many dictionaries are even beginning to drop the "biennial" meaning of "biannual", and I only ever see it currently used to mean "twice per year". But I also agree that if an LDS Church general conference is being referred to, it's best to use "biannual" to avoid the confusion with the specifically named "Semiannual G.C." of the church, which is just one of the conferences that occurs in October every year. But as Val says, this may not apply directly in this case as it's referring to editions of the magazine and not the conference itself. Snocrates 21:50, 10 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]