couplet

English

Etymology

From French couplet

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈkʌp.lət/, IPA^(key): /ˈkəplɨt/

Noun

couplet (plural couplets)

1. (literature) A pair of lines with rhyming end words.
2. 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.

3. (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

• (streets): one-way pair

Translations

in poetry, a pair of lines with rhyming end words

• Bulgarian: куплет m (kuplet), двустишие n (dvustišie)
• Finnish: kupletti (fi), säepari
• French: couplet (fr)
• German: Couplet (de) n
• Hausa: ƙwàr̃ f
• Persian: بیت (fa) (beyt)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: parelha (pt) f
• Russian: купле́т (ru) m (kuplét), двусти́шие (ru) n (dvustíšije)
• Slovene: distih m
• Tagalog: dulay, dalawahan, kopla
• Telugu: ద్విపద (te) (dvipada)

See also

• tercet
• quatrain
• cinquain
• sestet
• septet
• octave

Anagrams

• octuple

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French couplet.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cou‧plet

Noun

couplet n (plural coupletten, diminutive coupletje n)

1. verse of a song

Antonyms

• refrein

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French

Etymology

couple +‎ -et.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ku.plɛ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

couplet m (plural couplets)

1. (literature) couplet

Descendants

• → Dutch: couplet
• → English: couplet
• → German: Couplet
• → Spanish: cuplé

See also

• refrain

Further reading

• “couplet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.