dichotomy

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di·chot·o·my

(dī-kŏt′ə-mē)

n. pl. di·chot·o·mies

1. A division into two contrasting parts or categories: the dichotomy between rural and urban communities; regards the division between nature and nurture as a false dichotomy.

2. Astronomy The phase of the moon, Mercury, or Venus when half of the disk is illuminated.

3. Botany Branching characterized by successive forking into two approximately equal divisions.

[Greek dikhotomiā, from dikhotomos, divided in two : dikho-, dicho- + temnein, to cut; see tem- in Indo-European roots.]

dichotomy

(daɪˈkɒtəmɪ)

n, pl -mies

1. division into two parts or classifications, esp when they are sharply distinguished or opposed: the dichotomy between eastern and western cultures.

2. (Logic) logic the division of a class into two mutually exclusive subclasses: the dichotomy of married and single people.

3. (Botany) botany a simple method of branching by repeated division into two equal parts

4. (Astronomy) the phase of the moon, Venus, or Mercury when half of the disc is visible

[C17: from Greek dichotomia; see dicho-, -tomy]

diˈchotomous, dichotomic adj

diˈchotomously adv

Usage: Dichotomy should always refer to a division of some kind into two groups. It is sometimes used to refer to a puzzling situation which seems to involve a contradiction, but this use is generally thought to be incorrect

di•chot•o•my

(daɪˈkɒt ə mi)

n., pl. -mies.

1. division into two parts or kinds; subdivision into halves or pairs.

2. division into two exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups: a dichotomy between thought and action.

3. a mode of branching by constant forking, as in some stems.

4. the phase of the moon or of an inferior planet when half of its disk is visible.

[1600–10; < Greek]

dichotomy

division of material into two parts for the purpose of classification. — dichotomist, n.

dichotomy

noun division, gulf, split, separation, polarity, disjunction a dichotomy between the academic world and the industrial world

Usage: Dichotomy should always refer to a division of some kind into two groups. It is sometimes used to refer to a puzzling situation, which seems to involve a contradiction, but this use is thought by many to be incorrect, and dilemma is a more appropriate alternative.

Translations

διχοτομία

dichotomie

dicotomia

dichotomy

[dɪˈkɒtəmɪ] N → dicotomía f

dichotomy

[daɪˈkɒtəmi] n → dichotomie f
a dichotomy between → une dichotomie entre

dichotomy

n → Trennung f, → Dichotomie f

dichotomy

[dɪˈkɒtəmɪ] n (frm) → dicotomia

di·chot·o·my

, dichotomization

n. dicotomía, dicotomización, división en dos partes; bifurcación.

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References in periodicals archive ?

Any secondary pupil who has endured freshman history lectures about the Alien and Sedition Acts should be well aware of the basic dichotomy between full civil rights in times of national emergency versus the most effective ways to guarantee their long-term survival.

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"Dichotomy CMVII": Mask'd shadow, monster at the shoulder hoverd/Urging ending; horror opend ravening/Mouth to gorge on all days; this was shadowd/Valley, land of desert blotting greengrowth,/Time that damps eternity with pain;/Onrush of cold with winter's barren threats,/Reluctant emrald losing toehold, plunging:/This then life's tale; he who made you asks/Not contemplation, pressing precipice,/But toil in yoke maturity accepts;/And future holding toil imprisoned; one/Must cope by building new work, fanciful./Thus taxing that which creates, beckons, asks/The spirit on; for only that would live.

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Despite his long professional ballet experience as a performer, choreographer, and teacher, Strate always has resisted making a strict dichotomy between ballet and modern.

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Spanish is also loosed within the story--a word here, a phrase there, a few lines here combining with English as a statement of the dichotomy that is real for those whose lives are governed by a dual culture.

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This can be described further in terms of a dichotomy for violence based on the offender's desired outcome.

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Professor Leonard further ponders whether the latest incarnation of white populists will be like earlier populists who paid lip service to anti-racism only to "secure political power on the back of black voters," or whether they "reflect a history of white intellectuals who have joined people of color in an effort to dream America anew." Now that's quite a dichotomy. It's fine and good to be wary of romanticizing earlier generations of populists or supposedly "multiracial" movements that elided questions of racial injustice.

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Astronomers have known about this dichotomy ever since Italian-French astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini discovered Iapetus in 1672.

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Since then it has flourished, like "ambiguity" and "dichotomy" during my college years, as a sign of the writer's intelligence.

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The English translator somewhat obscures the peril by using the word "debate" instead of what Ratzinger really means, namely "quarrel." What indeed happened between the Wars was a withdrawal into mutually exclusive camps which hardened progressively at the approach of the Vatican Council into the traditional/progressive dichotomy. On one side were those who sought to determine the form (gestalt) of the liturgy in order to conform themselves to it; on the other, the sought-after "form" elicited "reform," and the desire to conform the liturgy to themselves.

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They parlayed the dichotomy of winter's weather and concrete, as naturalists tend to do.

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Jordan's two-volume biography, which amplified the traditional "good duke, bad duke" dichotomy, prompted a revisionist reversal of the two stereotypes led by Barrett Beer, Michael Bush, and Dale Hoak, but none of their works focused on the King himself.