It is known in vacuum that the three-flavor neutrino survival probability can be approximated by the effective two-flavor form to first orders in $epsilon equiv Delta m^2_{21} / Delta m^2_{31}$, with introduction of the effective $Delta m^2_{alpha alpha}$ ($alpha = e, mu, tau$), in regions of neutrino energy $E$ and baseline $L$ such that $Delta m^2_{31} L / 2E sim pi$. Here, we investigate the question of whether the similar effective two-flavor approximation can be formulated for the survival probability in matter. Using a perturbative framework with the expansion parameters $epsilon$ and $s_{13} propto sqrt{epsilon}$, we give an affirmative answer to this question and the resultant two-flavor form of the probability is valid to order $epsilon$. However, we observe a contrived feature of the effective $Delta m^2_{alpha alpha} (a)$ in matter. It ceases to be a combination of the fundamental parameters and has energy dependence, which may be legitimate because it comes from the matter potential. But, it turned out that $Delta m^2_{mu mu} (a)$ becomes $L$-dependent, though $Delta m^2_{ee} (a)$ is not, which casts doubt on adequacy of the concept of effective $Delta m^2$ in matter. We also find that the appearance probability in vacuum admits, to order $epsilon$, the similar effective two-flavor form with a slightly different effective $Delta m^2_{beta alpha}$ from the disappearance channel. A general result is derived to describe suppression of the matter effect in the oscillation probability.
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