Dichotomy

How to spell dichotomy

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce dichotomy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dichotomy mean?

1. nounA division or contrast between two things that are represented as being entirely different or opposed.

Dichotomy in a sentence

• The report highlighted the dichotomy between rising profits and falling staff morale.

• There is a clear dichotomy between what the company promises and what it delivers.

Where does dichotomy come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes from the Greek dikhotomia, which literally meant 'a cutting in two'. It was built from dikha, meaning 'in two' or 'apart', joined to the verb temnein, 'to cut', the same root that gives us 'atom' (something that cannot be cut) and the surgical '-tomy' endings such as 'appendectomy'. The original Greek sense was quite physical and astronomical: it described the moon when exactly half of its disc appeared lit, cut cleanly into light and dark halves. English adopted the word in the early 1600s, mainly through scholarly and scientific writing, and the meaning broadened to any sharp division into two contrasting parts. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the 'ch' sounds like a hard 'k' (a giveaway of its Greek pedigree), and the unstressed schwa in '-otomy' tempts writers toward an 'a' or to drop a letter entirely.

How the word is built

• dicho- (from dikha: in two, apart)
• tom (from temnein: to cut)
• -y (noun suffix)