Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To divide into two parts or branches.
  • intransitive verb To separate into two parts or branches; fork.
  • adjective Forked or divided into two parts or branches, as the Y-shaped styles of certain flowers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Two-forked; divided into two branches.
  • To divide into two forks or branches.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To divide into two branches.
  • adjective Two-pronged; forked.
  • adjective divided into or made up of two parts.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Divided or forked into two; bifurcated.
  • adjective Having bifurcations.
  • verb To divide or fork into two channels or branches.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb divide into two branches
  • adjective resembling a fork; divided or separated into two branches
  • verb split or divide into two

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin bifurcāre, bifurcāt-, to divide, from Latin bifurcus, two-pronged : bi-, two; see bi– + furca, fork.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin bifurcātus.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bifurcate.

Examples

  • Jan seems to think that using the word bifurcate makes it more intelligent to say that you have to try to implement your church doctrine exactly without comprimise in the political world.

    Myclob's Mitt Romney Encyclopedia Mike 2010

  • _ -- Most discussions of classification make reference to the so-called bifurcate scheme of division as the only one by which exhaustive division can be surely achieved.

    The Classification of Patents United States Patent Office

  • And at the same time that we've been going on, WTI and Brent have disconnected where WTI is contango and and Brent has flattened and is starting to bifurcate, which is the normal condition.

    unknown title 2011

  • Where would Jelinsky see 'bifurcate' in the course of the negotiations?

    Banquets of the Black Widowers Asimov, Isaac, 1920-1992- 1984

  • Well, what we try to do is, I'm going to say, we kind of bifurcate cash as you look at the business is going to generate more cash.

    Owens-Illinois CEO Discusses Q4 2010 Earnings Call Transcript - Seeking Alpha 2011

  • I'll kind of bifurcate our portfolio by emerging markets and then established markets because that's how we really look at it.

    Retail Sector and Stocks Analysis from Seeking Alpha 2009

  • Steve, if you were to kind of bifurcate the Mimi's store base could you give us an idea of what the costs look like outside of those four markets?

    SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page 2008

  • Steve, if you were to kind of bifurcate the Mimi's store base could you give us an idea of what the costs look like outside of those four markets?

    SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page 2008

  • Steve, if you were to kind of bifurcate the Mimi's store base could you give us an idea of what the costs look like outside of those four markets?

    SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page 2008

  • Steve, if you were to kind of bifurcate the Mimi's store base could you give us an idea of what the costs look like outside of those four markets?

    SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.