\Di*chot"o*my\, n. [Gr. ?, fr. ?: cf. F. dichotomie.
See {Dichotomous}.]
1. A cutting in two; a division.
         A general breach or dichotomy with their church.
                                               --Sir T.
                                               Browne.
2. Division or distribution of genera into two species;
   division into two subordinate parts.
3. (Astron.) That phase of the moon in which it appears
   bisected, or shows only half its disk, as at the
   quadratures.
4. (Biol.) Successive division and subdivision, as of a stem
   of a plant or a vein of the body, into two parts as it
   proceeds from its origin; successive bifurcation.
5. The place where a stem or vein is forked.
6. (Logic) Division into two; especially, the division of a
   class into two subclasses opposed to each other by
   contradiction, as the division of the term man into white
   and not white.