bilateral

From bi- +‎ lateral.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /baɪˈlætəɹəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ætəɹəl

bilateral (comparative more bilateral, superlative most bilateral)

1. Having two sides.
   • 1989 June 21 [1989 June 20], “El Salvador's Vice President Visits Taiwan”, in Daily Report: China‎^[1], numbers 81-118, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 81, column 2:

     General Wego W.K. Chiang, secretary general of the National Security Council, said that the visit of El Salvador Vice President Merino to Taipei on behalf of President Alfredo Cristiani was in response to an invitation of the ROC [Republic of China] Government which hopes to further strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries.

2. Involving both sides equally.
3. (of an agreement) Binding on both of the two parties involved.
4. Having bilateral symmetry.
5. (anthropology) Involving descent or ascent regardless of sex and side of the family (bilateral linearity).

bilateral (plural bilaterals)

1. A meeting between two people or groups.

• bare it all, trailable, trialable

From bi- +‎ lateral.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [bi.lə.təˈɾal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [bi.la.teˈɾal]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

bilateral m or f (masculine and feminine plural bilaterals)

1. bilateral

• bilateralitat

• “bilateral”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “bilateral”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “bilateral” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “bilateral”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

From bi- +‎ lateral.

bilateral m or f (plural bilaterais)

1. bilateral

• “bilateral”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026

bi- +‎ lateral

• IPA^(key): [ˈbiːlatəˌʁaːl]

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːl

bilateral (strong nominative masculine singular bilateraler, not comparable)

1. bilateral

• “bilateral” in Duden online
• “bilateral”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[2] (in German)

Internationalism, affixed lateral +‎ bi-, borrowed from Dutch bilateraal.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /bilatəˈral/ [bi.la.t̪əˈral]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: bi‧la‧te‧ral

bilatêral (comparative lebih bilateral, superlative paling bilateral)

1. bilateral

• “bilateral”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

bilateral (not comparable)

1. bilateral

bilateral (masculine bilateralen, neuter bilateraalt, not comparable)

1. bilateral

From bi- +‎ lateral, from Latin lateralis, compare with Latin bilateralis.

bilateral (masculine and feminine bilateral, neuter bilateralt, definite singular and plural bilaterale)

1. bilateral

• “bilateral” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “bilateral” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From bi- +‎ lateral, from Latin lateralis.

bilateral (neuter bilateralt, definite singular and plural bilaterale)

1. bilateral

• “bilateral” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From bi- +‎ lateral.

• Rhymes: -al, -aw
• Hyphenation: bi‧la‧te‧ral

bilateral m or f (plural bilaterais)

1. bilateral

• bilateralmente

• “bilateral”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “bilateral”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from French bilatéral. By surface analysis, bi- +‎ lateral.

bilateral m or n (feminine singular bilaterală, masculine plural bilaterali, feminine/neuter plural bilaterale)

1. two-way

From bi- +‎ lateral.

• IPA^(key): /bilateˈɾal/ [bi.la.t̪eˈɾal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: bi‧la‧te‧ral

bilateral m or f (masculine and feminine plural bilaterales)

1. bilateral

• “bilateral”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

bilateral (not comparable)

1. bilateral

• “bilateral”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “bilateral”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “bilateral”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)