couplet
English edit
Etymology edit
From French couplet, from couple + -et. Doublet of cabaletta.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
couplet (plural couplets)
- A set of two things, particularly
- Coordinate terms: singlet, triplet, quadruplet, tetraplet, quintuplet, pentuplet, sextuplet, septuplet, octuplet, nonuplet, decuplet, centuplet, multiplet
- (literature) A pair of lines, typically with rhyming end words.
- A pair of one-way streets which carry opposing directions of traffic through gridded urban areas.
- 5th Street is one-way west only and 6th Street is one-way east only. Together, they form a couplet in Downtown Los Angeles.
- Synonym: one-way pair
- (taxonomy) A pair of two mutually exclusive choices in a dichotomous key.
- 2001, Stephen T. Ross, The Inland Fishes of Mississippi, page 33:
- The dichotomous keys are constructed so that each couplet presents a set of alternative choices.
- 2004, Shin'ichiro Ishikawa, An Exploration of a New Poetic Expression Beyond Dichotomy:
- As long as the correct statement of each couplet is chosen, and the unknown organism is included in the key, a confident identification is usually achieved.
Synonyms edit
- See Thesaurus:duo
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
in poetry, a pair of lines with rhyming end words
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Anagrams edit
Dutch edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from French couplet, from Middle French couplet, from Old French couplet.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
couplet n (plural coupletten, diminutive coupletje n)
- verse of a song
Antonyms edit
Descendants edit
French edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
couplet m (plural couplets)
- (music) verse
- (literature) couplet
Descendants edit
See also edit
Further reading edit
- “couplet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.