trifurcate
Americanverb (used without object)
adjective
adjective
Usage
What does trifurcate mean? Trifurcate means to divide or fork into three branches. Things can trifurcate on their own or in an otherwise passive way, as in That’s where the river trifurcates into three branches, or they can be trifurcated by someone, as in We trifurcated the road into three lanes so more people could exit at once. The word trifurcate can be used as an adjective meaning divided into three branches, but the adjective trifurcated is more commonly used in this way. The word trifurcation refers to the act of trifurcating or something that is trifurcated. These terms are most often used in technical and scientific contexts, such as engineering and medicine. The related and more common word bifurcate means to divide or fork into two branches. Example: The hiking trail trifurcates after about four miles, so make sure you go down the middle path and not the ones on the right or left.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of trifurcate
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.
See Examples For:
There is an additional person to trifurcate bills.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 31, 2022
Triadelphous†, triangular, tricuspid, tricapsular†, tridental†, tridentate, tridentiferous†, trifoliate, trifurcate, trigonal†, trigrammic†, trigrammatic†, tripetalous†, tripodal, tripodic†, triquetral†, triquetrous†.
From Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Roget, Peter Mark
And they’ll have to maintain that fitness through an unusually long, trifurcated and exhausting season that will feature as many as 22 pre-World Cup games, the World Cup, then five more months of club matches.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2022
Bertelsen has a trifurcated theory for how unscripted projects came to exert so much influence.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 19, 2021
Perhaps the answer is to replicate that model for the rest of Iraq, to create a trifurcated nation rather than the currently bifurcated one.
From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 2016
It was an extraordinary sight, this huge throng bathed in floodlights with the trifurcated sculpture reaching for the inky sky.
From Time Magazine Archive
When the road had traversed the width of the valley, it trifurcated.
From Sinister Street, vol. 2 by MacKenzie, Compton
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.
