furcate
Americanadjective
verb (used without object)
verb
adjective
Usage
What does furcate mean? Furcate means to fork or divide into branches or different parts. It can also be used as an adjective meaning forked or branching. The adjective furcated can be used to mean the same thing. Things can furcate on their own or in an otherwise passive way, as in That’s where the river furcates into two branches, or they can be furcated by someone, as in We furcated the road into multiple lanes so more people could exit at once. The related verb bifurcate means to divide or fork into two branches or parts, and trifurcate means to divide or fork into three. The noun furcation refers to the act of furcating or to something that is forked or has been split in such a way. These terms are most often used in technical and scientific contexts, such as engineering and medicine. Example: The hiking trail furcates about three miles in, so make sure you go down the left branch.
Other Word Forms
- furcation noun
- multifurcate adjective
- unfurcate adjective
Etymology
Origin of furcate
First recorded in 1810–20, furcate is from the Medieval Latin word furcātus cloven. See fork, -ate 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The capillitium is very even the taeniae closely wound, the elater-ends often furcate.
From The North American Slime-Moulds A Descriptive List of All Species of Myxomycetes Hitherto Reported from the Continent of North America, with Notes on Some Extra-Limital Species by MacBride, Thomas H. (Thomas Huston)
The tail soon acquires the furcate form with which we made acquaintance in the last Prawn-Zoea described.
From Facts and Arguments for Darwin by Muller, Fritz
Sporangia fasciculate, confluent on a persistent hypothallus, dark fuscous; peridia very fugacious; stipes united at the base, erect, furcate; spores large, brown, globose.
From The North American Slime-Moulds A Descriptive List of All Species of Myxomycetes Hitherto Reported from the Continent of North America, with Notes on Some Extra-Limital Species by MacBride, Thomas H. (Thomas Huston)
The threads appear at first sight entirely simple, but are really several times furcate, and not infrequently anastomose.
From The North American Slime-Moulds A Descriptive List of All Species of Myxomycetes Hitherto Reported from the Continent of North America, with Notes on Some Extra-Limital Species by MacBride, Thomas H. (Thomas Huston)
Furcā′tion, a forking or branching out; Fur′cifer, a genus of South American deer with furcate antlers.—adjs.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
