Word.ws English Dictionary

bivious

Syllables: bi·vi·ous/ˈbɪ.vɪ.əs/US/ˈbi.vi.əs/

bivious adjective: having, or leading, two ways.

bivious: having, or leading, two ways
Image: Andrew Tatlow, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

bivious (comparative more bivious, superlative most bivious)

  1. (rare) Having, or leading, two ways.
    • If publique Aſſemblies of Divines cannot agree upon a right vvay, private Conventicles of illeterate men, vvill ſoon finde a vvrong. Bivious demurres breed devious reſolutions. Paſſengers to heaven are in haſte, and vvill vvalk one vvay or other.1647, Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: […] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, […], →OCLC, page 37
    • Even ſtrange to tell, / I now ſo clung an Individium was, / So fix at home, and yet ſo bivious / At the ſame time, and far abroad; […]1647, G[eorge] T[ooke], “[Annæ-Dictata, or, A Miscelaine of Some Different Cansonets, […]] Funerall Teares”, in The Belides […], London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 112

Examples of bivious in a sentence

  • In bivious theorems, and Janus-faced doctrines, let Virtuous considerations state the determination.1716, Thomas Browne, “Part the Third”, in Christian Morals, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] University-Press, for Cornelius Crownfield; and...
  • This Vault is bivious, and cut out of the Sand, ſeveral Paces broad, and 5 Yard high, at the End which opens into the Graſſe, or dry Ditch.1718, [John Aubrey], “Reygate Hundred. Reygate, or Rhie-gate.”, in The Natural History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, volume IV...
  • […] Deuteronomy places the reader in a dilemma, a "bivious" position.2016, Jan Assmann, “Inscriptional Violence and the Art of Cursing: A Study of Performative Writing”, in Ernst van den Hemel, Asja...

Forms of bivious

comparativemore bivious
superlativemost bivious

Origin of bivious

From Latin bivius (“two-way, having two approaches”) + English -ous.

Questions about bivious

What does bivious mean?
Bivious means having, or leading, two ways.
How do you use bivious in a sentence?
In bivious theorems, and Janus-faced doctrines, let Virtuous considerations state the determination.
What part of speech is bivious?
Bivious is an adjective.
How do you pronounce bivious?
Bivious is pronounced /ˈbɪ.vɪ.əs/ (UK).

Words near bivious in the dictionary

  1. bivial
  2. bivied
  3. bivies
  4. Bivings
  5. bivinyl
  6. bivious
  7. bivirga
  8. bivirgae
  9. bivis
  10. bivisible
  11. bivisibles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bivious (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bivious.wav.

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