DUET

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does duet mean? 

• DUET (noun)
  The noun DUET has 5 senses:

1. two items of the same kind

2. two performers or singers who perform together

3. a pair who associate with one another

4. a musical composition for two performers

5. (ballet) a dance for two people (usually a ballerina and a danseur noble)

  Familiarity information: DUET used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DUET (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Two items of the same kind

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

brace; couple; couplet; distich; duad; duet; duo; dyad; pair; span; twain; twosome; yoke

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"):

fellow; mate (one of a pair)

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Two performers or singers who perform together

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

duet; duette; duo

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 3

Meaning:

A pair who associate with one another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

couple; duet; duo; twosome

Context example:

an inseparable twosome

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:

A musical composition for two performers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

duet; duette; duo

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 5

Meaning:

(ballet) a dance for two people (usually a ballerina and a danseur noble)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

duet; pas de deux

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)

 Context examples 

I should no more lay it down as a general rule that women write better letters than men, than that they sing better duets, or draw better landscapes.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

For three or four minutes on end the fearsome duet continued, while all the foliage rustled with the rising of startled birds.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was a sort of written duet, wherein each glorified the other in loverlike fashion, very pleasant to read and satisfactory to think of, for no one had any objection to make.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

They sang together, and played duets together, and we had quite a little concert.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She and Mr. Rochester sang a duet.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She went to it; but the music on which her eye first rested was an opera, procured for her by Willoughby, containing some of their favourite duets, and bearing on its outward leaf her own name in his hand-writing.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

They solaced their wretchedness, however, by duets after supper, while he could find no better relief to his feelings than by giving his housekeeper directions that every attention might be paid to the sick lady and her sister.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

In the country, therefore, the Miss Bertrams continued to exercise their memories, practise their duets, and grow tall and womanly: and their father saw them becoming in person, manner, and accomplishments, everything that could satisfy his anxiety.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The solo over, a duet followed, and then a glee: a joyous conversational murmur filled up the intervals.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Oh, nothing, nothing, said he, and strolled back to where the voices of the contending men of science rose in a prolonged duet, the high, strident note of Summerlee rising and falling to the sonorous bass of Challenger.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)