Category:Dichotomy

Di*chot"o*my, n. Etym: [Gr. dichotomie. See Dichotomous.]

1. A cutting in two; a division. A general breach or dichotomy with their church. Sir T. Browne.

2. Division or distribution of genera into two species; division into two subordinate parts.

3. (Astron.)

Defn: That phase of the moon in which it appears bisected, or shows only half its disk, as at the quadratures.

4. (Biol.)

Defn: Successive division and subdivision, as of a stem of a plant or a vein of the body, into two parts as it proceeds from its origin; successive bifurcation.

5. The place where a stem or vein is forked.

6. (Logic)

Defn: Division into two; especially, the division of a class into two subclasses opposed to each other by contradiction, as the division of the term man into white and not white.