dyad

English

Noun

dyad (plural dyads)

1. A set of two elements treated as one; a pair.
   • 1908, W. D. Ross, Metaphysics, translation of original by Aristotle:

     ... positing a dyad and constructing the infinite out of great and small, instead of treating the infinite as one, is peculiar to him; ...

2. (music) any set of two different pitch classes.
3. A pair of things standing in particular relation; dyadic relation.
   • "For each individual in a specific dyad (i.e., mother-offspring, offspring-father, sibling-sibling),..." Debra Lieberman, John Tooby, and Leda Cosmides - The evolution of human incest avoidance mechanisms: an evolutionary psychological approach, p. 20
4. (chemistry) An element, atom, or radical having a valence or combining power of two.

Derived terms

• dyadic

Translations

a set of two different elements

• Bulgarian: двойка (bg) (dvojka) f, чифт (bg) (čift) m
• Finnish: pari (fi)

• Polish: diada (pl), para (pl)
• Portuguese: díade f

music: any set of two different pitch classes

• Finnish: dyadi
• Japanese: 二和音 (ni-waon)

• Portuguese: díade f

See also

• monad
• pair
• triad
• interval
• trichord
• hexachord
• tetrachord

Anagrams

• addy
• D-Day