bipartisan

Bipartisan means including two parties or factions, especially ones that typically oppose each other.

Bipartisan is used in the context of political systems that have two dominant parties. Bipartisan is most often used to describe actions or solutions intended to counteract partisan politics, which refers to a situation in which members of each party vote along party lines and refuse to compromise.

Example: Approving the budget before the deadline will take a bipartisan effort.

The first records of bipartisan in English come from the early 1900s. Bipartisan is composed of the prefix bi-, meaning two, and partisan, which is “a supporter of a group or party, especially one who shows a biased allegiance.” Partisan is based on the same root as the word party.

When a government is dominated by two political parties, the two parties usually have deep ideological differences. This is certainly the case in the United States, where the Democratic party and the Republican party disagree on all kinds of things. When the two parties can’t compromise because they only stick to their own side, this is often called partisanship or partisan politics, which can lead to gridlock. But sometimes politicians work with members of the other party to get things done that they agree on. Doing so is called being bipartisan. (In the U.S., this is sometimes called “crossing the aisle,” referring to the aisle in the U.S. Senate that separates the two seating areas where members of each party sit.)

Bipartisan is used in many phrases related to members of both parties working together, such as bipartisan coalition, bipartisan solution, and bipartisan efforts. It can also be used to describe legislation put forward collaboratively by members of both parties, as in bipartisan legislation and bipartisan bill.

Bipartisan does not mean the same thing as nonpartisan. Nonpartisan means “not supporting or controlled by a political party.” Some organizations, like think tanks and charities, label themselves as nonpartisan, typically as a way to indicate that they are not tied to the agenda of any particular party.

What are some other forms related to bipartisan?

• bipartisanship (noun)
• bipartisanism (noun)

What are some synonyms for bipartisan?

• two-party

What are some words that share a root or word element with bipartisan? 

• partisan
• nonpartisan
• bicameral

What are some words that often get used in discussing bipartisan?

• government
• politics
• effort
• solution
• coalition
• compromise
• gridlock

Bipartisan is most often used in the context of politics. In the U.S., it refers to members of the Democratic and Replublican parties working together.

Thank you, @Sen_JoeManchin, @SteveDaines, @SenCoryGardner, and @MarkWarner, for your leadership on bipartisan legislation to tackle @NatlParkService deferred maintenance. We look forward to its enactment into law!

— National Park Foundation (@GoParks) March 4, 2020

Bipartisan group of senators call on DeVos to reverse decision to use program criteria that will cut off hundreds of rural school districts from federal funding they've relied on for nearly 20 years:
Story here: https://t.co/HbPKZ1RS1z https://t.co/P21PtQKrIR

— Erica L. Green (@EricaLG) March 4, 2020

Heart disease still affects far too many Nebraskans. Proud to join @SenatorSinema in a bipartisan effort to promote heart health! https://t.co/3qlw84J4Hb

— Senator Deb Fischer (@SenatorFischer) February 27, 2020

Is bipartisan used correctly in the following sentence?

A bipartisan agreement couldn’t be reached by the two factions, so they voted to reconvene at a later date.