bifid

American  

[bahy-fid] / ˈbaɪ fɪd /

adjective

1. separated or cleft into two equal parts or lobes.

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bifid British  

/ ˈbaɪfɪd /

adjective

1. divided into two lobes by a median cleft

   bifid leaves

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Other Word Forms

• bifidity noun
• bifidly adverb

Etymology

Origin of bifid

1655–65; < Latin bifidus, equivalent to bi- bi- ¹ + fid- (variant stem of findere to split; akin to bite ) + -us adj. suffix

Example Sentences

The 2-year-old had surgery for the condition, called preaxial polydactyly or bifid thumb, at Shriners Children’s Chicago hospital this year.

From Washington Post • Mar. 16, 2023

The pads on the 3rd and 4th fingers become enlarged at the same time as the bifid claws develop.

From Scientific American • Jan. 13, 2014

Figure 7.25 Cervical Vertebrae A typical cervical vertebra has a small body, a bifid spinous process, transverse processes that have a transverse foramen and are curved for spinal nerve passage.

From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013

The summit is pointed, bifid, and hardly large enough for more than two persons.

From Climbing in The British Isles, Vol. II Wales and Ireland by Hart, H. C.

Procumbent, irregularly branched or subpinnate; leaves semi-vertical, subsquarrose, obliquely cordate, the lower lobe expanded; underleaves ovate, acutely bifid, the upper margin angular-dentate or entire; sporogonium unknown.—On trees and rocks, chiefly in mountain regions.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa