| 释义 |
di·chot·o·my
I. \ ̷ ̷ˈ ̷ ̷ ̷ ̷mē, -mi\ noun
(-es)
Etymology: Greek dichotomia, from dichotomein to cut in half (from dichotomos) + -ia -y
1.
a. : division into two parts, classes, or groups especially into two groups mutually exclusive or opposed by contradiction
< a dichotomy into the good and the evil >
b. : division into two : a splitting into two parts or groups : differentiation into two contrasted or sharply opposed groups
< dichotomy between practice and theory >
< a dichotomy between written and spoken evidence >
2. : the phase of the moon or an inferior planet in which just half its disk appears illuminated
3.
a. : forking, bifurcation; especially : repeated bifurcation (as of the stem of a plant or a vein of the body)
b. : a system of branching in which the main axis forks repeatedly into two branches (as in the thallus of the seaweed Dictyota dichotoma and in many liverworts) forming a helicoid axis when the corresponding member of each pair is suppressed or a scorpioid axis when alternate members of adjacent pairs are suppressed — see false dichotomy, sympodium
c. : branching of an ancestral line into two more or less equal diverging branches
4. : fee splitting by doctors
II. noun
: something with seemingly contradictory qualities |