ramify

American  

[ram-uh-fahy] / ˈræm əˌfaɪ /

verb (used with or without object)

ramified, ramifying

1. to divide or spread out into branches or branchlike parts; extend into subdivisions.

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ramify British  

/ ˈræmɪˌfaɪ /

verb

1. to divide into branches or branchlike parts

2. (intr) to develop complicating consequences; become complex

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Other Word Forms

• multiramified adjective
• unramified adjective

Etymology

Origin of ramify

1535–45; < Middle French ramifier < Medieval Latin rāmificāre, equivalent to Latin rām ( us ) branch ( ramus ) + -ificāre -ify

Explanation

The verb ramify describes something that branches off or spreads, like the new subway lines that ramify across your city and reach even the neighborhoods farthest from the center. Ramify came into English through French, but it traces all the way back to the Latin word ramus, meaning "branch." It can describe things that literally branch out in segments, or it can be used figuratively to describe things that spread, like the effects of a new policy that ramify through your school. Ramify might seem like a strange word, but you probably know the related word ramification, a consequence that stems — or branches — from some other action.

Example Sentences

Perhaps surprisingly, the effects of the growth of the penal state ramify well beyond city streets, all the way, for instance, to the Gulf of Mexico.

From Washington Post • Jan. 8, 2016

"Everything that could fork, ramify, coil, flutter, fold back or thread through itself," wrote Leigh Fermor of the Landsknechts, "suddenly sprang to action."

From The Guardian • Oct. 12, 2012

As economist John Maynard Keynes wrote, “The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify… into every corner of our minds.”

From Scientific American • May 24, 2012

The consequences of the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks of September 2001 will ramify for decades.

From Time • May 24, 2012

I need to know that ramify and bifurcate are synonyms, if they even are?

From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin