duet
/djuˈɛt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.43 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A musical composition in two parts, each performed by a single voice (singer, instrument or univoce ensemble).
noun
A pair or couple, especially one that is harmonious or elegant.
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "The fare is Caribbean with an Asian touch — millefeuille of sun-dried tomato, Paris mushrooms and chargrilled local asparagus followed by a duet of chicken and shrimp..."
- "1822, Lord Byron, Letter to Mr. Moore, Pisa, July 12, 1822, in The Letters of George Gordon Byron, edited by Mathilde Blind, London: Walter Scott, 1887, p. 277, https://books.google.ca/books?id=-DF4Zs_eezUC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false When you can spare time from duetting, coquetting, and claretting with your Hibernians of both sexes, let me have a line from you."
- "He was about as accordantly coupled with Dr. Middleton in discourse as a drum duetting with a bass-viol […]"
- "‘Ti-yi-yi-yime is on my side, yes it is,’ I used to yodel, duetting with Mick Jagger as I gyrated alone in my student room."
- "1975, Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Belknap Press, p. 223, Duetting species are typically monogamous."
- "In several dozen species of birds there has been found a phenomenon known as duetting, or antiphonal singing: the first part of a song is executed by one partner of a pair, then the other partner very promptly chimes in to sing the second part."
Etymology
PIE word *dwóh₁ From Italian duetto (“short musical composition for two voices”), diminutive of due (“two”).