Definition of "bimodal" [bimodal]

• Having or exhibiting two contrasting modes or forms: "American supermarket shopping shows bimodal behavior—careful, nutritious choices mixed with salty, high-fat snack foods” ( Sheryl Julian). (adjective)
• Having two distinct statistical modes. (adjective)
• Designed for operation on either railroads or highways. Used of vehicles. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "(The pertinent experiments were done with monkeys using rakes to manipulate distal objects; specific "bimodal" neurons that usually fire when the monkey's fingertips are touched eventually began to fire when the tip of the rake is touched, thus suggesting that the brain had "incorporated" the rake into its somatosensory "body schema.")"
• "In stats, what we have in Oregon is known as a "bimodal" distribution."
• "It’s easy to guess that low-rent areas might give you the heebie-jeebies, but there might be some kind of bimodal distribution… I don’t know about you, but super-wealthy areas give me the creeps."