Word.ws English Dictionary

furcate

/ˈfɜː.keɪt/US/ˈfɝ.keɪt/

furcate adjective: forked, branched; divided at one end into parts.

Adjective

furcate (not comparable)

  1. Forked, branched; divided at one end into parts.
    Synonyms:
    cloven, forked

Verb

furcate (third-person singular simple present furcates, present participle furcating, simple past and past participle furcated)

  1. To fork or branch out.
    • But that which I believe yields a great deal of our turpentine, is the fir-tree or deal, which is a coniferous tree, evergreen, whose cones are of the lesser sort, having long leaves, either that whose leaves encompass and cover the branches, bearing long cones hanging downwards as she male...1700 May 17, John Houghton, Husbandry and trade improv'd, number 408
    • These ridges are prominent, about the thickness of a coarse thread, very numerous, irregular, and run into one another, but towards the bottom, always furcate or divide.1778, Emanuel Mendes Da Costa, Historia naturalis testaceorum Britanniaeor, or The British conchology, page 173

Synonyms of furcate

Forms of furcate

third-person singular presentfurcates
present participlefurcating
past participlefurcated
pastfurcated

Origin of furcate

From Medieval Latin furcātus (“forked, branched”), from Latin furca (“fork”), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix). Compare French fourchu. The verb was formed by metanalysis or as if from Latin furcō (“to fork”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Words formed from furcate

Questions about furcate

What does furcate mean?
Furcate means forked, branched; divided at one end into parts.
What part of speech is furcate?
Furcate can be an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce furcate?
Furcate is pronounced /ˈfɜː.keɪt/ (UK).

Words near furcate in the dictionary

  1. furcaps
  2. furcarbanil
  3. furcasternal
  4. furcasternum
  5. furcasternums
  6. furcate
  7. furcated
  8. furcately
  9. furcates
  10. furcatin
  11. furcating

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: furcate (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-furcate.wav.

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