English Explanatory Dictionary

pair

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Two alike or identical things taken together; often followed by of.
  2. One of the constituent items that make up a pair.
  3. Two people in a relationship, partnership or friendship.
  4. Used with binary nouns (often in the plural to indicate multiple instances, since such nouns are plural only, except in some technical contexts).
  5. A couple of working animals attached to work together, as by a yoke.
  6. A poker hand that contains two cards of identical rank, which cannot also count as a better hand.
  7. A score of zero runs (a duck) in both innings of a two-innings match.
  8. A double play, two outs recorded in one play.
  9. A doubleheader, two games played on the same day between the same teams.
  10. A boat for two sweep rowers.
  11. A pair of breasts.
  12. A pair of testicles.
verb
  1. To group into one or more sets of two.
  2. to link two electronic devices wirelessly together, especially through a protocol such as Bluetooth.
  3. To bring two (animals, notably dogs) together for mating.
  4. To come together for mating.
  5. To engage (oneself) with another of opposite opinions not to vote on a particular question or class of questions.
  6. To suit; to fit, as a counterpart.
verb
  1. To impair, to make worse.
  2. To become worse, to deteriorate.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

pâr /pɛə/ /pɛ(ə)ɹ/ en-us-pair.ogg /peː/ en-au-pair.ogg /ˈpeə/ /ˈpiə/ /ˈpeɹ/ /ˈpɜː/

Word forms

pair pairs pairing paired

Etymology

From Middle English paire, from Old French paire, from Latin paria (“equals”), neuter plural of par (“pair”). Related to pār (“equal”, adjective). Compare Saterland Frisian Poor (“pair”), West Frisian pear (“pair”), Dutch paar (“pair”), German Paar (“pair”), Italian paio (“pair”)

Synonyms

duo dyad couple brace twosome duplet pair of spectacles spectacles

Related words

parity couple

Derived words

acid-base pair alpha pair another pair of shoes aspectual pair base pair base-pair breathing bottom pair Breit-Wheeler pair production byte pair encoding carriage and pair Church pair conjugate acid-base pair conjugate redox pair contrapair Cooper pair coxless pair Darlington pair dispair eigenpair electron pair extrapair extra pair of hands force pair fresh pair of eyes get a pair golden pair grow a pair have a pair homologous pair Hoogsteen base pair inert pair effect in pairs interpair intrapair inversion pair kernel pair keypair kilobase pair king pair Kramers pair Lax pair linear pair live pair lone pair megabase pair middle pair minimal pair multipair near-minimal pair on a pair one hair of a woman can draw more than a hundred pair of oxen one pair ordered pair orthopair overpair pair and share pair bond pair bonding pairbreaking pairforming

Translations

Albanian: çift Northern Altai: тӧй Southern Altai: кош Arabic: زَوْج Arabic: جوز Arabic: اجواز Arabic: جوزين Armenian: զույգ Aromanian: pãreaclje Aromanian: pãreaclji Aromanian: giugii Aromanian: uidii Aromanian: zivyari Azerbaijani: cüt Basque: biko Belarusian: па́ра Bengali: জোড়া Bulgarian: дво́йка Bulgarian: чифт Burmese: ဒွေးဘော် Burmese: ယမက Burmese: အတွဲ Catalan: parella Catalan: parell Chinese Mandarin: 雙 /双 Chinese Mandarin: 對 /对 Chinese Mandarin: 一對 /一对 Chinese Cantonese: 啤 Chinese Cantonese: 雙 /双 Chinese Cantonese: 對 /对 Czech: pár Danish: par Dutch: paar Dutch: koppel Dutch: duo Dutch: tweetal Dzongkha: ཆ Esperanto: paro Estonian: paar Finnish: pari French: paire Old French: couple Friulian: pâr Galician: par Georgian: წყვილი German: Paar Gothic: 𐌲𐌰𐌾𐌿𐌺 Greek: ζεύγος Greek: ζευγάρι Ancient Greek: ζεῦγος Hawaiian: paʻa Hebrew: זוּג Hebrew: צֶמֶד Hindi: जोड़ा Hungarian: pár Icelandic: par Ingrian: pari Irish: péire Italian: paio Japanese: 対 Japanese: 一対 Japanese: 一組 Japanese: ペア
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