two-way

English

Etymology

From two +‎ way. Compare Old English twiweġ (“intersection, junction of two roads”).

Adjective

two-way (not comparable)

1. (of a highway) Allowing traffic in two directions.
2. (of traffic, visibility) Moving or occurring in opposite directions.
3. (of a radio, etc.) Permitting communication in two directions, i.e. both transmitting and receiving.
   • 1960 September, “Inter-city diesel units for the Hull-Liverpool service of the N.E.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 560:

     The inner power cars are brake second class compartment coaches; the guard has means of both bell and two-way telephone communication with the driving compartment.

4. (of a project, treaty, etc.) Involving the mutual action or participation of two parties.
5. (education) Utilising both Western and Indigenous knowledge systems; bothways.
   • 2023 August 11, Sarah Legge, Libby Rumpff, Stephen T. Garnett, John C.Z. Woinarski, “Loss of terrestrial biodiversity in Australia: Magnitude, causation, and response”, in Science, volume 381, →DOI, page 8, column 3:

     There are increasing examples of Indigenous-led research, and "two-way" collaborative research between scientists and Indigenous land custodians.

6. (American football) Playing both offense and defense in the same game.
7. (statistics, of a table, etc.) Having or involving exactly two variables; bivariate.

   A two-way chart; a two-way table.

Derived terms

• two-way mirror
• two-way street

Translations

moving in both directions

• Bulgarian: двупосочен (dvuposočen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 双向的

• Czech: obousměrný
• Danish: tovejs
• Finnish: kaksisuuntainen (fi)
• Greek: αμφίδρομος (el) (amfídromos)
• Latin: bivius
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: toveis

• Polish: dwukierunkowy (pl)
• Swedish: dubbelriktad, tvåvägs (sv)

Noun

two-way (plural two-ways)

1. (Cincinnati) A serving of Cincinnati chili with spaghetti.

Coordinate terms

• (serving of Cincinnati chili): three-way, four-way, five-way, six-way

Further reading

• two-way on Wikipedia.Wikipedia