polychotomy
/ˌpɑlɪˈkɑtəmi/
noun
- A division into many branches, parts, or categories.
- The teacher explained that a polychotomy is like a fork with many prongs instead of just two.
- The polychotomy of the data made it hard to find a simple pattern.
- In biology, a polychotomy occurs when a single ancestor splits into multiple lineages at once.
Antonyms