couplet

From French couplet

IPA^(key): /ˈkəplɨt/

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.

• (streets): one-way pair

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

• octuple

Borrowed from French couplet.

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cou‧plet

couplet n (plural coupletten, diminutive coupletje n)

1. verse of a song

• refrein

couple +‎ -et.

• IPA^(key): /ku.plɛ/

• Audio

  (file)

couplet m (plural couplets)

1. (literature) couplet

• Dutch: couplet (borrowed)
• English: couplet (borrowed)
• German: Couplet (borrowed)
• Spanish: cuplé (borrowed)

• refrain

• “couplet” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).