dichotomy

English

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Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /daɪˈkɒt.ə.mi/

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• Rhymes: -ɒtəmi

Noun

dichotomy (plural dichotomies)

1. A cutting in two; a division.
2. Division or distribution of genera into two species; division into two subordinate parts.
3. The phase of the moon in which it appears bisected, or shows only half its disk, as at the quadratures.
4. Successive division and subdivision, as of a stem of a plant or a vein of the body, into two parts as it proceeds from its origin; successive bifurcation.
5. The place where a stem or vein is forked.
6. Division into two; especially, the division of a class into two subclasses opposed to each other by contradiction, as the division of the term man into white and not white.
7. conditions perceived as polar extremes or opposites
8. an either-or perspective

Derived terms

• dichotomic
• dichotomically
• dichotomise
• false dichotomy

Related terms

• trichotomy
• partition

Translations

Translations

Bulgarian: разполовяване (bg) n. Czech: dichotomie (cs) f. French: dichotomie (fr) f. German: Dichotomie (de) f., Zweiteilung (de) f. Greek: διχοτόμηση (el) (dichotómisi) f. Hungarian: kettéosztás (hu)

Italian: dicotomia f. (all senses) Japanese: 二分法 (ja) (nibunhō) Serbian: dihotomija f. Spanish: dicotomía (es) Swedish: tudelning (sv) n. Turkish: diktomi (tr)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.