Word.ws English Dictionary

biplicity

biplicity noun: the state of being twice folded; reduplication.

Noun

biplicity (uncountable)

  1. The state of being twice folded; reduplication.
    • […]that certain characteristic properties of the bacterial flagellum can be imitated in a wire coil model. These properties are: (1) the arc which is visible frequently at the end of a flagellum (Figs. 10 and 11), and (2) the phenomenon of “biplicity,” that is, the sudden appearance of one-half the...1964, Robert Day Allen, Noburō Kamiya, Primitive Motile Systems in Cell Biology, page 610
  2. Doubleness, the state of being double.
    • The integration and differentiation of vital function on the one hand, and the preparation and composition of food-material on the other hand form — as we will become fully aware further on — the two great divisions in the subject-matter of the science of organization, divisions corresponding to...1878, Edmund Montgomery, “Monera, and the problem of life”, in The Popular Science Monthly, volume XIII, page 680
    • He who reads them will see that Mr. Darwin by no means minces matters with Lyell[…] There may be a certain biplicity of kindness and courtesy in Mr. Darwin ; but there is no duplicity of his essential manhood and truth.1894, James Hutchison Stirling, Darwinianism: Workmen and Work, pages 111-12

Origin of biplicity

From Latin bi- (“twice”). Bailey (1736) suggests borrowing from Latin biplicitas, but this is not well attested. Compare duplicity, from Latin duplicare (“double”).

Questions about biplicity

What does biplicity mean?
Biplicity means the state of being twice folded; reduplication.
What part of speech is biplicity?
Biplicity is a noun.

Words near biplicity in the dictionary

  1. biplaned
  2. biplanes
  3. biplanetary
  4. biplaning
  5. biplicate
  6. biplicity
  7. biplot
  8. biplots
  9. BIPM
  10. BIPOC
  11. BIPOCs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: biplicity (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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