Definition of BIPARTISAN

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Bipartisan is a two-part word. The first element is the prefix bi-, which means "two"; the second is partisan, a word that traces through Middle French and north Italian dialect to the Latin part- or pars, meaning "part." Partisan itself has a long history as a word in English. It has been used as a noun in reference to a firm adherent to a party, faction, or cause (especially one exhibiting blind, prejudiced, and unreasoning allegiance), since the 16th century. The related adjective (meaning "of, relating to, or characteristic of a partisan") appeared in the 19th century, as did, after a space of some 50 years, the adjective bipartisan.

Examples of bipartisan in a Sentence

In his first Inaugural Address, Jefferson sounded a conciliatory, bipartisan note, averring that "we are all Republicans, we are all Federalists"—a trope copied in many inaugural addresses to follow. — Sean Wilentz, Newsweek, 27 Jan. 2009 Seasoned observers of Washington tend to dismiss such talk of national unity and bipartisan cooperation as meaningless political boilerplate … — Larissa MacFarquhar, New Yorker, 7 May 2007 Two recent national bipartisan blue-ribbon panels, the National Research Council Committee on Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children and the National Reading Panel, came to converging conclusions. — Bennet A. Shawitz, New Republic, 6 Nov. 2000 The bill has bipartisan support.

Recent Examples on the Web During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, however, President Trump singled out Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the leading proponent of the Senate package, by name, and encouraged lawmakers to pass a bipartisan bill. — Lev Facher, STAT, "In reelection bid, a GOP lawmaker campaigns on Pelosi’s drug pricing bill," 11 Feb. 2020 Last month, the chair of the Senate science committee introduced a bipartisan bill with similar spending goals for these fields, and Michael Kratsios, the White House’s chief technology officer, praised it in testifying before the committee. — Jeffrey Mervis, Science | AAAS, "Trump’s new budget cuts all but a favored few science programs," 11 Feb. 2020 The bipartisan bill passed with a vote 98-1 and is now awaiting approval from the state Senate and Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam. — Alaa Elassar, CNN, "After years of skyrocketing costs, lawmakers across the US push for caps on life-saving insulin payments," 8 Feb. 2020 Legislators are considering a bipartisan bill that would prevent detained immigrants from being housed in Norcor jail in The Dalles. — oregonlive, "Oregon woman is among coronavirus victims on quarantined cruise ship: Morning Briefing for Friday, Feb. 7," 7 Feb. 2020 The Senate passed a bipartisan bill last week that would have kept the EdChoice Scholarship program but cut the list of eligible schools from 1,227 (the original number for the 2020-2021 school year) to 425. — Anna Staver, Cincinnati.com, "Ohio House plan replaces rank-based EdChoice with income-based school voucher system," 6 Feb. 2020 Those 3 bills, and more than 275 other bipartisan bills, are just gathering dust on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s desk. — Detroit Free Press, "Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's response to Trump State of the Union: Read the full text," 5 Feb. 2020 Wild’s name is on a bipartisan bill that Speier introduced called the Courtney Wild Crime Victims’ Rights Reform Act of 2019. — Neil Vigdor, BostonGlobe.com, "State of the Union guests: Who are President Trump and members of Congress bringing?," 4 Feb. 2020 These fears and disavowals of facial recognition tech come just months after two senators introduced a bipartisan bill to limit how the FBI and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency could use it. — Courtney Linder, Popular Mechanics, "This App Is a Dangerous Invasion of Your Privacy—and the FBI Uses It," 22 Jan. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'bipartisan.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.