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dichotomy

UK/daɪˈkɒtəmi/US/daɪˈkɑtəmi/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,660 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: dichotomies

A dichotomy is a sharp division into two opposed parts. A false dichotomy, the dichotomy between them, set up a dichotomy.

False dichotomy is the standard name for the trick of offering two options when more exist, and it is one of the commonest faults in argument. The Greek means a cutting in two.

Definitions of dichotomy

  1. 1noundichotomyA sharp division into two opposed parts.C1

    “There's a clear dichotomy between what the company says and what it actually does.”

dichotomy is a division.

Where it comes from

Greek dichotomia means a cutting in two, from dicha, in two, plus temnein, to cut.

  1. Ancient Greek

    διχοτομία — dichotomy

  2. English, today

    dichotomy

From Ancient Greek διχοτομία (“dichotomy”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

dichotomy in the wild

  • Contemporary economists still theorize Veblen's distinction between "institutions" and "technology", known as the Veblenian dichotomy.

    Thorstein Veblen

  • A dichotomy () is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets).

    Dichotomy

  • Many large valleys formed by the lava erupted from the volcanoes of Mars cut through the dichotomy.

    Martian dichotomy

  • The Martian dichotomy boundary includes the regions called Deuteronilus Mensae, Protonilus Mensae, and Nilosyrtis Mensae.

    Martian dichotomy

  • Also, the Martian dichotomy was aligned along the equator.

    True polar wander on Mars

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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.