forked

1. 1
   adjective

   Splitting or dividing into two or more directions or separate parts.

   The hikers reached a forked path and chose the steeper route.

   Lightning struck with a bright, forked flash across the sky.

   Similardivided, split, bifurcated, branched

   Oppositeundivided, straight

2. 2
   adjective

   Possessing prongs or divided branches; having parts that split off from a single base.

   The devil is often drawn with a forked tail and small horns.

   Many snakes rely on their forked tongues to sense smells in the air.

   Similarsplit, cloven, divided, pronged

   Note

   Here the weight falls on having rather than on dividing: a forked tail or tongue is one that carries prongs. That is why the word takes counting prefixes, as in a three-forked trident, which names how many tines a thing has. With the splitting sense, a road is forked where it divides. With this one, a tool or tail is forked because it has prongs.

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of fork.

   The river forked around a small wooded island.

   He forked the soil thoroughly to loosen it before planting.

   Note

   A regular verb, so one spelling serves as both past tense and participle, and it doubles as the adjective for splitting. The verb works with or without an object: the river forked around an island, but he forked the soil. In software it usually takes an object, as when a developer forked the repository. The participle then names the copy that results: a forked project.

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