couplet

English

Etymology

From French couplet, from couple + -et. Doublet of cabaletta.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʌp.lət/, /ˈkʌp.lɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌplət

Noun

couplet (plural couplets)

1. A set of two things, particularly.

   Coordinate terms: singlet, triplet, quadruplet, tetraplet, quintuplet, pentuplet, sextuplet, septuplet, octuplet, nonuplet, decuplet, centuplet, multiplet

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

      Coordinate terms: tercet, quatrain, cinquain, sestet, septet, octave

      1. Ellipsis of antithetical couplet, Chinese couplet, or duilian couplet (“duilian”).
         • 2024 December 9, He Yin, “UNESCO inscribes Spring Festival on intangible cultural heritage list, promoting exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations”, in People's Daily Online‎^[1]:

           At the session, vivid displays of cultural elements related to the Spring Festival, such as couplets, dragon dance, and Chinese knots, accompanied by melodies full of Spring Festival flavor, brought the festival's rich traditions to life.

         • 2026 January 8, Wu Jie, “Reimagining couplets for modern expression”, in Global Times‎^[2]:

           As residents across China are handwriting festive couplets and the character fu (fortune) to ring in the Chinese New Year, new content and creative designs have breathed new life into the tradition as topics related to the ingenuity on display have also gone trending on social media recently.

   2. A pair of one-way streets which carry opposing directions of traffic through gridded urban areas.

      Synonym: one-way pair

      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

• See Thesaurus:duo

Derived terms

• coupleteer
• heroic couplet
• rhyming couplet

Translations

in poetry, a pair of lines with rhyming end words

• Armenian: բեյթ (hy) (beytʻ), երկյակ (hy) (erkyak)
• Azerbaijani: beyt (az)
• Belarusian: купле́т m (kupljét), двуве́рш m (dvuvjérš)
• Bulgarian: купле́т m (kuplét), двусти́шие n (dvustíšie)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 對句 / 对句 (deoi³ geoi³)

  Mandarin: 對句 / 对句 (zh) (duìjù)

• Czech: dvojverší n
• Esperanto: duversaĵo, strofo
• Finnish: kupletti (fi), säepari
• French: couplet (fr) m
• Georgian: ბაითი (ka) (baiti)
• German: Couplet (de) n
• Greek: κουπλέ (el) n (kouplé)
• Hausa: ƙwàr̃ f
• Indonesian: bait (id), kuplet (id), untai (id)
• Japanese: 対句 (ja) (ついく, tsuiku)
• Korean: 대구(對句) (ko) (daegu)
• Macedonian: двостих m (dvostih), купле́т m (kuplét)
• Persian: بِیْت (fa) (beyt)
• Polish: dwuwiersz m, dystych (pl) m
• Portuguese: parelha (pt) f
• Romanian: distih (ro) n
• Russian: купле́т (ru) m (kuplét), двусти́шие (ru) n (dvustíšije)
• Slovak: kuplet m
• Slovene: distih m
• Sundanese: pada
• Tagalog: dulay, dalawahan, kopla
• Tajik: байт (tg) (bayt), думисрагӣ (dumisragi)
• Telugu: ద్విపద (te) (dvipada)
• Turkish: beyit (tr)
• Ukrainian: купле́т m (kuplét), двові́рш m (dvovírš)
• Vietnamese: đối (vi), câu đối (vi)

Anagrams

• octuple

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French couplet, from Middle French couplet, from Old French couplet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kuˈplɛt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cou‧plet
• Rhymes: -ɛt

Noun

couplet n (plural coupletten, diminutive coupletje n)

1. verse of a song

Antonyms

• refrein

Descendants

• → Papiamentu: kuplèt, couplet

French

Etymology

From couple +‎ -et.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ku.plɛ/

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Noun

couplet m (plural couplets)

1. (music) verse
2. (literature) couplet

Descendants

• → Dutch: couplet
• → English: couplet
• → German: Couplet
• → Spanish: cuplé
• → Russian: купле́т (kuplét)

See also

• refrain

Further reading

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