Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A forking or division into two branches; separation into two parts or things; in optics, same as double refraction. See refraction.
- n. A point at which forking occurs; one or both of the bifurcating parts.
- n. Specifically, in geography, the division of a stream into two parts, each of which connects with a different river system: as, the bifurcation of the upper Orinoco.
Wiktionary
- n. biology A division into two branches.
- n. by extension Any place where one thing divides into two.
- n. The act of bifurcating; branching or dividing in two.
- n. Either of the forks or other branches resultant from such a division.
- n. geography A place where two roads, tributaries etc. part or meet.
- n. nautical The point where a channel divides when proceeding from seaward.
- n. mathematics The change in the qualitative or topological structure of a given family as decribed by bifurcation theory.
- n. computer science A command that executes one block or other of commands depending the result of a condition.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A forking, or division into two branches.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the place where something divides into two branches
- n. the act of splitting into two branches
- n. a bifurcating branch (one or both of them)
Etymologies
- From bifurcate + -ion. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“[Footnote: Some geographical writers apply the term bifurcation exclusively to this intercommunication of rivers; others, with more etymological propriety, use it to express the division of great rivers into branches at the head of their deltas.”
“Case in point, the Chrome/Android bifurcation is as much a statement of the way products are built at Google as something elemental to mobile, mobility, tablets, netbooks and web apps.”
“His blog contains "Essays and articles about IT and Indian English," and in the latter category is an entry about the word bifurcation:Bifurcation is one my favorite words in the English language...”
“The dôm palm must bifurcate, for bifurcation is the law of its being; but I could never discover whether there was any fixed limit to the number of stems into which it might subdivide.”
“What convinces me of the reality of the national bifurcation is the commentary on Barack Obama’s first few months in office (just short of four de jure, about six de facto, since the outgoing Administration, in contrast to its predecessor, made no trouble for the incoming one).”
“This separation, known as bifurcation, means that the entity that purchased and allegedly holds the note does not have the legal rights contained in the mortgage.”
The Huffington Post: Richard Zombeck: County Register of Deeds Picks Fight with MERS
“_A bifurcation is the forking or dividing of one line into two or more branches.”
“In their mathematical model, the scientists are able to predict how each type of hotspot will respond to increased policing, as well as when each type might occur, by a careful mathematical analysis involving what is known as bifurcation theory.”
“In chaos dynamics this phenomenon is called a bifurcation or a”
Earth News, Earth Science, Energy Technology, Environment News
“In chaos dynamics this phenomenon is called a bifurcation or a 'catastrophe'.”
Earth News, Earth Science, Energy Technology, Environment News
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bifurcation’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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boundaries / divisions
demarcation, limit, separation, distinction, definition, boundary, division, dichotomy, binary, dualities, categorisation, classification and 23 more...
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quality words
This is a mix of new words I've read studying for the GRE verbal and words I use normally. I also check back on these words if I don't use them often enough.
ineffable, septuagenarian, sesquipedalian, argyle, coalescence, profundity, vivisepulture, defenestrate, concatenate, usurp, diatribe, veracious and 461 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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kingofbash's Words
bash, poleaxed, salacious, libertine, charlatan, aplomb, fortuitous, finagle, apoplectic, debutante, carte blanche, aardvark and 472 more...
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Eazy E
motley, callous, languid, copious, dubious, contemptible, disparage, sporadic, gratuitous, disillusioned, conflagration, concordance and 99 more...
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bertilak's Words
antidisestablishm..., feldercarb, wainscoting, eleemosynary, oxymoron, fuliginous, libration, lammergeier, saxifrage, ichor, lambent, smaragdine and 414 more...
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Interesting words
ineffable, effable, immutable, amorphous, parochial, salient, ascertain, circumspect, congenial, coeval, aversion, edification and 117 more...
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wordhoard
dilatory, ataraxia, hermit, cabana, hut, dome, vestigial, porcine, crapulous, usufruct, curmudgeon, bombastic and 229 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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botello360's list
ruminate, steel, bifurcation, arrivederci, portage, tactile, ruminant, rift, anecdotage, diacritic, cud, hull and 399 more...
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lmm141's Words
obdurate, nascent, bifurcation, recalcitrant, facetious, exegesis, solipsistic, onanism, rogue, ostensibly, misanthrope, lithe and 23 more...
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Learned
machination, blithe, insouciant, querulous, capricious, pulchritude, pejorative, obsequious, despotic, mellifluous, ullage, denouement and 12 more...
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What probably should show up in my pa...
ancillary, bifurcation, matrifocality, mitosis, sacrosanct, eschatology, polemic, jeremiad, myopic, parsimonious, robust, cogently and 29 more...
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A
abjure, abscond, abhor, acquiescent, abstruce, affect, aficionado, acolyte, abject, allegory, alterity, archimedean and 52 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for bifurcation.
kewpid A civil servant without peer! Apr 26, 2008
bilby I love the last bit of that. '... to be brief, is in the propinquity of its ultimate regrettable termination.'
That's about as brief as Sir H got, whahahahaha! Apr 26, 2008
bilby Yes, Minister. Apr 26, 2008
kewpid “The relationship which I might tentatively venture to aver has been not without some degree of reciprocal utility, and perhaps even the occasional gratification, is approaching a point of irreversible bifurcation, and, to be brief, is in the propinquity of its ultimate regrettable termination.�?
—Sir Humphrey Appleby Apr 26, 2008