Make Your Point > Archived Issues > DICHOTOMY

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connect today's word to others: At a football game, have you noticed how dichotomous the crowd is? Everyone's a fan of Team A or Team B, but nobody's cheering for both or neither. Team spirit has dichotomized the crowd. Today's word, dichotomy, has Greek roots that literally mean "a cutting in half," and a dichotomy is a way of categorizing things into two neat parts. Say that you make some kind of dichotomous observation, like this one from Oscar Wilde: "No civilized man ever regrets a pleasure, and no uncivilized man ever knows what a pleasure is." Then, you're being epi______ic, or brief and witty. (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) make your point with... "DICHOTOMY" A dichotomy is a division or separation into two kinds or two categories. In other words, when you can classify things into two different groups, you've got a dichotomy. Pronunciation: die KOT uh me Part of speech: Countable noun. (Countable nouns, like "bottle," "piece," and "decision," are words for things that can be broken into exact units. You talk about "a bottle," "three pieces," and "many decisions." Likewise, talk about one dichotomy or multiple dichotomies.) Other forms: dichotomous, dichotomously; dichotomize, dichotomized, dichotomizing How to use it: Talk about the dichotomy between one thing and another thing: the dichotomy between heroes and villains in this simple story, the dichotomy between believers and non-believers, the dichotomy between "guilty" and "not guilty." The interesting thing about dichotomies is their rarity. What I mean is, we often consider something a dichotomy when it really isn't one, because in reality there's always some fuzziness or overlap between Thing A and Thing B, and there's often a Thing C (or a tertium quid, if you love fancy Latin terms, and who doesn't?). So we also talk about false dichotomies, or the absence of dichotomies: "to say that people are either good or bad is a false dichotomy," "they implied a dichotomy between athletes and academic-minded kids; that's ridiculous," "there's no dichotomy between theory and practice: they inform each other." So, we can also talk about the way that, in our eagerness to oversimplify the world and cut everything neatly in two, we assert, assume, invent, or imagine dichotomies; establish or cling to dichotomies, etc. And we can (and should!) dispel and reject dichotomies. examples: To me, the most disturbing dichotomy is this one: "If you're not with us, you're against us." Swipe left or swipe right, click "like" or don't click "like," accept or reject the friend request. Getting approval in real life is never that dichotomous. study it now: Look away from the screen to explain the definition in your own words. You’ll know you understand what "dichotomy" means when you can explain it without saying "a mutually exclusive set of two groups" or "a black-and-white division." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "_____ and _____ are too tangled up; it's no use trying to dichotomize them." Example: "Literature and history are too tangled up; it's no use trying to dichotomize them." before you review: Spend at least 20 seconds occupying your mind with the game below. Then try the review questions. Don’t go straight to the review now—let your working memory empty out first. This month, we're playing with The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce. It's a collection of silly, sarcastic, satirical definitions of everyday words, and--lucky us!--it's in the public domain. In each issue this month, I'll give you one of Bierce's definitions and, if it's a tough one, I'll give you the word's first letter. And you try to come up with the word. From our previous issue: Bierce defines it as "the art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic." It's a noun. It starts with P. What is it? Answer: Painting. Try this last one today: Bierce defines it as "a malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This [one], however, is a most useful work." It's a noun. What is it? review today's word: 1. One opposite of DICHOTOMOUS is A. ULTIMATE B. ENORMOUS C. MULTIFARIOUS 2. His _____ thinking lures him into one false dichotomy after another. A. either/or B. short-term C. overly analytical Answers are below. a final word: Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each weekday morning by Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From Liesl's blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes. Answers to review questions: 1. C 2. A