Library / English Dictionary |
DUET
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
(ballet) a dance for two people (usually a ballerina and a danseur noble)
Synonyms:
duet; pas de deux
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("duet" is a kind of...):
dance; dancing; saltation; terpsichore (taking a series of rhythmical steps (and movements) in time to music)
Meronyms (parts of "duet"):
adagio (a slow section of a pas de deux requiring great skill and strength by the dancers)
Holonyms ("duet" is a part of...):
ballet; concert dance (a theatrical representation of a story that is performed to music by trained dancers)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A musical composition for two performers
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("duet" is a kind of...):
composition; musical composition; opus; piece; piece of music (a musical work that has been created)
Meronyms (parts of "duet"):
primo (the principal part of a duet (especially a piano duet))
secondo (the second or lower part of a duet (especially a piano duet))
Sense 3
Meaning:
A pair who associate with one another
Example:
an inseparable twosome
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("duet" is a kind of...):
pair (two people considered as a unit)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "duet"):
same-sex marriage (two people of the same sex who live together as a family)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Two performers or singers who perform together
Synonyms:
duet; duette; duo
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("duet" is a kind of...):
musical group; musical organisation; musical organization (an organization of musicians who perform together)
Instance hyponyms:
Laurel and Hardy (United States slapstick comedy duo who made many films together)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Synonyms:
brace; couple; couplet; distich; duad; duet; duo; dyad; pair; span; twain; twosome; yoke
Classified under:
Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure
Hypernyms ("duet" is a kind of...):
2; deuce; II; two (the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one or a numeral representing this number)
Meronyms (parts of "duet"):
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "duet"):
doubleton ((bridge) a pair of playing cards that are the only cards in their suit in the hand dealt to a player)
Context examples:
She tried a duet, once, with her cousin Maldon, but could not so much as begin; and afterwards, when she tried to sing by herself, although she began sweetly, her voice died away on a sudden, and left her quite distressed, with her head hanging down over the keys.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
They could not but hold her cheap on finding that she had but two sashes, and had never learned French; and when they perceived her to be little struck with the duet they were so good as to play, they could do no more than make her a generous present of some of their least valued toys, and leave her to herself, while they adjourned to whatever might be the favourite holiday sport of the moment, making artificial flowers or wasting gold paper.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
It was not until one of these creatures wriggled on to a sand-bank within a few hundred yards of us, and exposed a barrel-shaped body and huge flippers behind the long serpent neck, that Challenger, and Summerlee, who had joined us, broke out into their duet of wonder and admiration.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)