Definition of "bireme" [bi•reme]

• An ancient galley equipped with two tiers of oars on each side. (noun)

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.

• "To increase the driving force and the speed, they added a second and then a third bank of oars, thus producing the "bireme" and the "trireme.""
• "Director Wolfgang Petersen recreates a long-ago world of bireme warships, clashing armies, the massive fortress city and the towering Trojan Horse."
• "Hence find bireme, hemiolia, merchantman, myoparo, quinquereme, sixteener and trireme in the glossary of Fortune's Favorites."