Learn English – “Annual” vs “Inter-annual” vs “Intra-annual”

adjectivesword-request

I want an adjective that unambiguously distinguishes the following two graph types:

Graph with years on x-axis and graph with months in a year on x-axis

It can be a technical term, but hopefully I want a word which laypeople can easily understand.

  1. Which does the word "annual change" refer to, the red one or the blue one? Or is this word ambiguous? I initially thought this only refers to the blue one, but I found there is at least one page that uses this phrase in the sense of "within one specific year" (i.e., red). How much is this acceptable?

  2. Does "inter-annual change" unambiguously and safely refer to the blue one? This dictionary entry defines this word as "Measured or evaluated on a yearly basis", which I think perfectly matches the blue graph. But some native speakers seem to think "inter-annual" only means something like "in relation to a previous/next year" (i.e., 1995 vs 1996, 1996 vs 1997, and so on).

  3. How about "intra-annual"? Does this unambiguously and safely refer to the red one?

  4. What is the best word that unambiguously refers to the blue one as opposed to the red one?

(By the way, I think I know the basic difference between inter- and intra- as in internet/intranet.)

Best Answer

You could choose to use any of the following terms. All to me as a native speaker would imply the above.

Year-on-year change and month-on-month change

Yearly change and monthly change

Annual change and monthly change

Your suggestion of intra-annual would sound odd to many people, even if technically it's correct.

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