Definition of "bipolar" []

• Relating to or having two poles or charges. (adjective)
• Relating to a device capable of using two polarizations, such as a transistor that uses positive and negative charge carriers. (adjective)
• Relating to or involving both of the earth's polar regions. (adjective)
• Having two opposite or contradictory ideas or natures: the bipolar world of the postwar period. (adjective)
• Biology Having two poles or opposite extremities: a bipolar neuron. (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.

• "In psychiatry, the term bipolar disorder now is preferred."
• "The word bipolar refers to the two poles of energetic extremes."
• "He only wishes such understanding of what he calls a bipolar "disposition" had existed when Kay was still alive."