bisect

bi- (“bi-, two”) +‎ Latin secāre (“to cut”)

• (General American) enPR: bī-sĕkt', IPA^(key): /baɪˈsɛkt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkt

bisect (third-person singular simple present bisects, present participle bisecting, simple past and past participle bisected)

1. (transitive) To cut or divide into two parts.
   • 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 7, page 84:

     The quadrennial period of games and festivals in Greece was probably arrived at by bisecting an older octennial period.

   1. (transitive, geometry) To divide an angle, line segment, or other figure into two equal parts.
   2. (computing) To perform a binary search on files in source control in order to identify the specific change that introduced a bug etc.

• (to divide into two parts): dichotomize, dimidiate; see also Thesaurus:bisect

bisect (plural bisects)

1. (geometry) A bisector, which divides into two equal parts.
2. (philately) An envelope, card, or fragment thereof showing an affixed cut half of a regular issued stamp, over which one or more postal markings have been applied. Typically used in wartime when normal lower rate stamps may not be available.

• dissect
• vivisect

Borrowed from French bissexte, from Latin bisextus.

bisect m or n (feminine singular bisectă, masculine plural bisecți, feminine and neuter plural bisecte)

1. bissextil