duel

B2 Topic:People & Society

US /ˈˈd͡ʒuːəl/ See IPA manual

Homophones

dual /ˈd͡ʒuː.əl/

Freq #6818

Meanings

1

noun
A formal fight between two people with weapons, arranged to settle a matter of honor.

The two men fought a duel at dawn with pistols.
2

noun
A contest or struggle between two strong opponents.

The match turned into a tense duel between the two best players.
3

verb
To fight a duel, or to compete fiercely with someone.

In the past, men often dueled over small insults.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Word family

Forms dueledduelingduelledduellingduels

Etymology

From Medieval Latin duellum (“fight between two men, duel”), itself from Old Latin duellum (“war, fight”), which survived in Classical Latin as a rare byform of bellum and was later reinterpreted as “duel” by unetymological association with duo (“two”). May have entered English through Middle French duel.

duellum itc-ola duel Middle French

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society Register & Style

External links

# duel

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈˈd͡ʒuːəl/
**Frequency rank:** 6818

## Meanings
1. A formal fight between two people with weapons, arranged to settle a matter of honor.
2. A contest or struggle between two strong opponents.
3. To fight a duel, or to compete fiercely with someone.

## Examples
- The two men fought a duel at dawn with pistols.
- The match turned into a tense duel between the two best players.
- In the past, men often dueled over small insults.

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: duellum
- Root: duel

## Etymology
From Medieval Latin duellum (“fight between two men, duel”), itself from Old Latin duellum (“war, fight”), which survived in Classical Latin as a rare byform of bellum and was later reinterpreted as “duel” by unetymological association with duo (“two”). May have entered English through Middle French duel.

## AI Etymology
Duel comes from Medieval Latin duellum (“fight between two men, duel”), itself from Old Latin duellum (“war, fight”), which survived in Classical Latin as a rare byform of bellum and was later reinterpreted as “duel” by unetymological association with duo (“two”). May have entered English through Middle French duel. In current use, the main senses are “A formal fight between two people with weapons, arranged to settle a matter of honor” and “A contest or struggle between two strong opponents”.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Register & Style

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