Standard Lemma guide

bifurcate

adj · verb · 7 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /baɪˈfɛːkɪt/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /baɪˈfɛːkeɪt/
  • General-American: /baɪˈfɚkət/
  • General-American: /baɪˈfɚkeɪt/
  • rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)kɪt
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈbaɪfəˌkeɪt/
  • General-American: /ˈbaɪfɚˌkeɪt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • UK: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: B IH1 F ER0 K EY2 T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
  • CMU ARPABET 2: B AY1 F ER0 K EY2 T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Divided or forked into two; bifurcated.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Having bifurcations.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

To divide or fork into two channels or branches.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

verb

Meaning 4

To cause to bifurcate.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

adjective satellite

Meaning 5

resembling a fork; divided or separated into two branches

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the biramous appendages of an arthropod
  • long branched hairs on its legson which pollen collects
  • a forked river
  • a forked tail
  • forked lightning
  • horseradish grown in poor soil may develop prongy roots

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: biramous, branched, forked, fork-like, forficate, pronged, prongy

Antonyms: none provided

6

verb

Meaning 6

divide into two branches

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • The road bifurcated

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: branch, ramify, fork, furcate, separate

7

verb

Meaning 7

split or divide into two

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: diverge

History

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin bifurcātus. Surface Analysis bi- + furcate.

Across languages

Translations

34 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Finnish: haarautunut — Divided or forked into two; bifurcated
  • Finnish: kahtia haarautunut — Divided or forked into two; bifurcated
  • Finnish: kahtiajakoinen — Divided or forked into two; bifurcated
  • Finnish: kahtiajakautunut — Divided or forked into two; bifurcated
  • Finnish: bifurkaatti — Divided or forked into two; bifurcated
  • German: zweizackig — Divided or forked into two; bifurcated
  • Spanish: bifurcado — Divided or forked into two; bifurcated
  • Tibetan: ཁ་དབྲག (kha dbrag) — Divided or forked into two; bifurcated
  • Tibetan: ཁ་དབྲག་ཅན (kha dbrag can) — Divided or forked into two; bifurcated
  • Tibetan: ཁ་གཉིས་མ (kha gnyis ma) — Divided or forked into two; bifurcated
  • Tibetan: རྩེ་གཉིས་མ (rtse gnyis ma) — Divided or forked into two; bifurcated
  • Finnish: kahtia jakautuva — Having bifurcations.
  • Finnish: jakautuva — Having bifurcations.
  • German: gegabelt — Having bifurcations.
  • Spanish: bifurcado — Having bifurcations.
  • Bulgarian: разклонявам се (razklonjavam se) — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Bulgarian: раздвоявам се (razdvojavam se) — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Chinese Mandarin: 分叉 (fēnchā) — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Finnish: haaroittaa — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Finnish: jakaa kahtia — (intransitive) divide into two
  • French: bifurquer — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Greek: διακλαδώνομαι (diakladónomai) — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Hungarian: kettéágazik — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Italian: biforcare — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Norwegian: bifurkere — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Portuguese: bifurcar — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Romanian: bifurca — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Russian: раздваивать (razdvaivatʹ) — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Spanish: bifurcarse — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Swedish: dela sig — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Swedish: klyva sig — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Tibetan: ཁ་དབྲག་ཏུ་གྱེས་པ (kha dbrag tu gyes pa) — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Tibetan: ཁ་གཉིས་སུ་གྱེས་པ (kha gnyis su gyes pa) — (intransitive) divide into two
  • Tibetan: གཉིས་སུ་དབྱེ་བ (gnyis su dbye ba) — (intransitive) divide into two