couplet

plural couplets

1. A set of two things, particularly.
   1. literatureA pair of lines, typically with rhyming end words.
   2. abbreviationellipsisliteratureEllipsis of antithetical couplet, Chinese couplet, or duilian couplet (“duilian”).

      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.

      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 more example

      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.

      2026 January 8, Wu Jie, “Reimagining couplets for modern expression”, in Global Times

   3. 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.

      Synonyms: one-way pair

   4. biologyA pair of two mutually exclusive choices in a dichotomous key.

      The dichotomous keys are constructed so that each couplet presents a set of alternative choices.

      2001, Stephen T. Ross, The Inland Fishes of Mississippi, page 33

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      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.

      2004, Shin'ichiro Ishikawa, An Exploration of a New Poetic Expression Beyond Dichotomy