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pair

Pronunciation: /pɛə/

The English word “pair” has 20 meanings listed here.

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.
  13. The exclusion of one member of a parliamentary party from a vote, if a member of the other party is absent for important personal reasons.
  14. Two members of opposite parties or opinion, as in a parliamentary body, who mutually agree not to vote on a given question, or on issues of a party nature during a specified time.
  15. A number of things resembling one another, or belonging together; a set.
  16. In a mechanism, two elements, or bodies, which are so applied to each other as to mutually constrain relative motion; named in accordance with the motion it permits, as in turning pair, sliding pair, twisting pair.

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.

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”)

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.