Bi-
//baɪ-// prefix
prefix ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Prefix
- 1 Two in number. morpheme
"biarticular"
- 2 Alternative form of bio-. alt-of, alternative, before-vowel, morpheme
"biont"
- 3 Having or possessing two of the root word's quality. morpheme
"biangular"
- 4 Both: referring to two as a set. morpheme
"biacetabular"
- 5 Being different in two ways with respect to the root. morpheme
"biadjoint"
Show 8 more definitions
- 6 Forked, divided by two, halved; (chemistry, proscribed) half morpheme
"bifurcate"
- 7 Double, twofold. morpheme
"bialgebroid"
- 8 Bisexual, relating to bisexuality. morpheme
"bicentric"
- 9 Bilateral, on both sides of the body. morpheme
"biconcave"
- 10 Twice. morpheme
"biannual"
- 11 Every two; a rate of once every two. morpheme
"biannual"
- 12 A pair of; composed of two. morpheme
"bibrow"
- 13 Used for the digit two to form systematic element names of elements whose existence has been predicted, and which have not yet been given a trivial name. morpheme
"un- (“1”) + bi- (“2”) + un- (“1”) + -ium (element suffix) → unbiunium (“element 121”)"
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"un- (“1”) + bi- (“2”) + un- (“1”) + -ium (element suffix) → unbiunium (“element 121”)"
Etymology
Etymology 1
PIE word *dwóh₁ Borrowed from Latin bi-, from Proto-Italic *dwi-, from Proto-Indo-European *dwi-. Doublet of twi- and di-.
Etymology 2
From Ancient Greek βίος (bíos, “life”).
More for "bi-"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.