Skip to content
ARCHIEENGLISH
LearnPlayWordsRanking
  • Learn
  • Play
  • Words
  • Ranking
  • Mine
← Vocabulary

bilateral

US/baɪˈlætəɹəl/
adjectiveB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,032 of 15,258mostly written

Bilateral means involving two sides or two countries. A bilateral agreement, bilateral talks, bilateral trade.

In diplomacy it contrasts with multilateral, which involves many, and the choice between the two is itself a policy: a strong country usually prefers bilateral deals, since it is larger than whoever sits opposite. In medicine, bilateral means on both sides of the body.

Definitions of bilateral

  1. 1adjectivebilateralInvolving two sides or two countries.B2+

    “The two countries signed a bilateral agreement on fishing rights.”

bilateral is a quality.

Where it comes from

Bi, two, plus lateral, from Latin latus, a side.

  1. Latin

    laterālis — belonging to the side

  2. English

    lateral

  3. English, today

    bilateral

From bi + lateral. lateral Latin laterālis (“belonging to the side”), from latus + -ālis.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

bilateral in the wild

  • In a bilateral strategy, a new contract has to be negotiated for each participant.

    Bilateralism

  • Meanwhile, Bilateria is a taxonomic grouping still used today to represent organisms with embryonic bilateral symmetry.

    Symmetry in biology

  • In 1913, in what was probably the earliest such agreement, a bilateral exchange of notes was signed between Germany and France to provide for airship services.

    Air transport agreement

  • ASAs cover the basic framework under which airlines are granted economic bilateral rights to fly two countries.

    Air transport agreement

  • The two states were created after the First World War from former Ottoman dominions by way of a secret bilateral agreement between Britain and France.

    Jordan–Syria relations

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the laterālis family

lateralbilateral

bilateral — used about once every 5,661 pages · #10,032 · point at the bar for the others

  • collateral