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bifurcate

bi·fur·cate/ˈbaɪfɚˌkeɪt/verb, adjective

bifurcate is a verb meaning “To divide or fork into two channels or branches” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled B-I-F-U-R-C-A-T-E and has 3 syllables (bi·fur·cate), and it appears about once in every 19 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does bifurcate mean?

verb

  1. 1

    To divide or fork into two channels or branches.

  2. 2

    To cause to bifurcate.

adjective

  1. 1

    Divided or forked into two; bifurcated.

  2. 2

    Having bifurcations.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce bifurcate?

  • UK /ˈbaɪfəˌkeɪt/
  • US /ˈbaɪfɚˌkeɪt/

As an adjective (“Divided or forked into two; bifurcated”): /baɪˈfɜːkɪt/, /baɪˈfɜːkeɪt/, /baɪˈfɚkət/.

Bifurcate has 3 syllables, split bi·fur·cate in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-bifurcate1.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-عُثمان_(Middle_river_exports)-bifurcate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of bifurcate

  • bifurcates present, singular, he/she/it
  • bifurcating participle, present
  • bifurcated participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is bifurcate?

Bifurcate appears about once in every 19 million words in written English, the 131,834th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Bifurcate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbifurquer ((intransitive) divide into two)
Portuguesebifurcar ((intransitive) divide into two)
Spanishbifurcarse ((intransitive) divide into two), bifurcado (Divided or forked into two; bifurcated)
Germanzweizackig (Divided or forked into two; bifurcated), gegabelt (Having bifurcations)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does bifurcate come from?

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin bifurcātus. Surface Analysis bi- + furcate.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).