Dictionary

dichotomize en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /dʌɪˈkɒtəmʌɪz/ (UK)

Etymology

From Ancient Greek διχότομος (dikhótomos) + -ize.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To separate into two parts, to classify into two classes, or to categorize into two categories.
   • The apostolical benediction dichotomizes all good things into grace and peace. 1623 December 26, Joseph Hall, “Sermon XI: The Glory of the Latter House”, in The Works of Joseph Hall, D.D., volume 5, Oxford: D. A. Talboys, published 1837, page 165:
   • Also, societies cannot be dichotomized into hunter-gatherer bands and agricultural civilizations. 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 49:
2. (intransitive) To be divided into two.
3. To exhibit as a half disk.
   • If the moon was a perfectly smooth sphere […] the place when she was dichotomized, […] would depend upon the sun's distance from the earth. 1837, Rev. William Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences from the Earliest to the Present Time, volume 1, pages 155–156:

Forms

Deriveds

dichotomization

Hypernyms

discretize

Relateds

dichotomy

Synonyms

binarize · halve · bisect