bifurcate

Verb

bifurcate (third-person singular simple present bifurcates, present participle bifurcating, simple past and past participle bifurcated)

1. (intransitive) To divide or fork into two channels or branches.
   • A considerable switch is to take place between Charing Cross and Cannon Street as termini for existing trains, in order to develop parallel working over the flat junction at Borough Market, where the two routes bifurcate (four tracks to Cannon Street and two to Charing Cross), as many as 20 times...1964 December, “Southern raises capacity of Borough Market Junction”, in Modern Railways, page 417
   • Elizabeth's disturbing presentation of herself as both virginal and sexual bifurcated after her death into opinion about whether she was virginal or sexual, so that on the one hand Elizabeth was apotheosized as the saint who through her refusal to marry had kept England Protestant and free, while...1994, M. Lindsey Kaplan, Katherine Eggert, ““Good queen, my lord, good queen” - Sexual Slander and the Trials of Female Authority in “The Winter's Tale””, in Renaissance Drama, volume 25, →DOI, page...
2. (transitive) To cause to bifurcate.
   • The forces that reduce two people to a Goodreads recommendation have bifurcated us politically, and that day we saw the virtual, intangible dangers of this attention economy turn very real: thousands of violent rioters, radicalised online, seemingly brainwashed, fighting with guns for a lie.2021 January 22, Lilah Raptopoulos, “My tug-of-war with algorithms”, in Financial Times, archived from the original on 22 Jan 2021

Adjective

UK/baɪˈfɜːkɪt/US/baɪˈfɚkət/

bifurcate (not comparable)

1. Divided or forked into two; bifurcated.
2. Having bifurcations.