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Glite Dictionary
🧠 Mental illness ⚡ Two opposite ends 🌍 Both polar areas
bipolar

bipolar

5 7.0
Having two opposite ends, like a north pole and a south pole
  • adjective
  • /ˌbaɪˈpoʊlər/
translation icon : bipolar
  • Cyprus has also been a bipolar society, with Turkish-Cypriots identifying with Turkey and Greek-Cypriots with Greece.
  • bipolar transistor
  • bipolar rivalry
  • bipolar world

We've sort of gone from a country that's bipartisan to a country that's bipolar.

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Examples

  • What seems more likely for the near term is that bipolar and multipolar tendencies will coexist and compete.

    Academic text (1990)

  • First, the world was bipolar and contained two superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Item measures were bipolar with a range from one to seven.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Beijing's leaders have been more concerned with national security in a bipolar international system.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Our societies are increasingly structured around a bipolar opposition between the Net and the Self (1996, 3).

    Academic text (1999)

  • What is unprecedented about this metamorphosis, however, is the manner in which the bipolar geopolitical structure changed.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The climate change debate has become increasingly bipolar, with stark divisions between activists and climate change skeptics.

  • The political landscape in the country has become bipolar, marked by two dominant parties pulling in opposite directions.

  • Her opinions on the issue were bipolar, swinging between complete approval and total disapproval depending on the circumstances.

Synonyms

polar
vsbipolar
26 4.4

Completely opposite in opinion or action

describes having two ends or poles without stressing complete oppositeness
bimodal
vsbipolar
  • Specialized
1 7.7

Showing two clear peaks in a set of data or measurements

refers to having two poles or extremes rather than statistical peaks

Antonyms

unipolar
  • Specialized
2 7.9

Having only one main center, for example one country or one electrical pole

Compounds

bipolar disorder
  • Specialized
24 3.9

A condition that causes very high and very low mood periods

How Many Poles

multipolar
  • Specialized
6.8
bipolar
5 7.0
unipolar
  • Specialized
2 7.9

Surface Forms

bipolar positive

Morphology

bipolar = polar (transparent) = bi + polar

Direct composition 'bi-' (two) + 'polar' (poles/extremes) yielding 'having two poles or extremes' is straightforward.

Etymology

Bipolar comes from bi- meaning 'two' as in the word bicycle and polar meaning 'poles' or 'opposite ends', so something bipolar has two opposite parts, like a magnet with north and south or a molecule with a positive and a negative end.