duo

C1 Topic:People & Society

US /ˈdu.oʊ/ UK /ˈdjuː.əʊ/ See IPA manual

Freq #13461

Meanings

1

noun
Two people who perform, work, or act together.

The comedy duo had audiences laughing all night.
2

noun
A piece of music written for two performers.

They played a lively duo for violin and piano.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · two people who perform,... duet

2 noun · a piece of music written... duet

More brace couple couplet doubletduadduplet dyad pair twaintwinsometwosome

Word family

Forms duos

Derived forms dufoilsuper-duo

Related forms duet number quartet trio

Simplified etymology

Duo, recorded in English from the late 16th century, comes from the Latin and Greek word duo, “two.” It belongs to the same ancient word family as English two, double, and duplicate.

Etymology

PIE word *dwóh₁ From French duo or Italian duo, from Latin duo (“two”), from Proto-Italic *duō, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁. Doublet of two, which was inherited via Proto-Germanic.

duo French *duō Proto-Italic *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# duo

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈdu.oʊ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈdjuː.əʊ/
**Frequency rank:** 13461

## Meanings
1. Two people who perform, work, or act together.
2. A piece of music written for two performers.

## Examples
- The comedy duo had audiences laughing all night.
- They played a lively duo for violin and piano.

## Synonyms
- brace
- couple
- couplet
- doublet
- duad
- duet
- duplet
- dyad
- pair
- twain
- twinsome
- twosome

## Derived Forms
- dufoil
- super-duo

## Related Forms
- duet
- number
- quartet
- trio

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: duo
- Root: *duō
- Root: *dwóh₁

## Etymology
PIE word *dwóh₁ From French duo or Italian duo, from Latin duo (“two”), from Proto-Italic *duō, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁. Doublet of two, which was inherited via Proto-Germanic.

## AI Etymology
Duo comes from French duo or Italian duo, from Latin duo (“two”), from Proto-Italic *duō, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁. Doublet of two, which was inherited via Proto-Germanic. The historical chain includes duo (French), duo (Italian), duo (Latin), *duō (Proto-Italic), and *dwóh₁ (Proto-Indo-European). The surrounding word family includes derived forms such as dufoil and super-duo and related forms such as duet, number, and quartet. In present use it covers two people who perform, work, or act together and a piece of music written for two performers.

## Topics
- People & Society

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duo