• (Received Pronunciation)enPR:pâr,IPA^(key):/pɛə(ɹ)/
• (General American)enPR:pâr,IPA^(key):/pɛ(ə)ɹ/

  • Audio(US):

    (file)

• (General Australian)IPA^(key):/peː/

  • Audio(General Australian):

    (file)

• (New Zealand,without thecheer–chair merger)IPA^(key):/ˈpeə/
• (New Zealand,cheer–chair merger)IPA^(key):/ˈpiə/
• (Scotland)IPA^(key):/ˈpeɹ/
• (Lancashire,fair–fur merger)IPA^(key):/ˈpɜː(ɹ)/
• Homophones:pare,pear,pere;peer,pier(bothcheer–chair merger);per,purr(bothfair–fur merger)
• Rhymes:-ɛə(ɹ)

FromMiddle Englishpaire, fromOld Frenchpaire, fromLatinparia(“equals”), neuter plural ofpar(“pair”). Related topār(“equal”,adj). CompareSaterland FrisianPoor(“pair”),West Frisianpear(“pair”),Dutchpaar(“pair”),GermanPaar(“pair”),Italianpaio(“pair”)

pair (pluralpairsor(archaic or dialectal)pair)

1. Twosimilar oridenticalthingstakentogether; often followed by of.
   • 1834 February, “Boz” [pseudonym;Charles Dickens], chapter II, inSketches by “Boz,” Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People. […], volume II, London: John Macrone, […], published1836,→OCLC,page266:

     Ting, ting, ting! went the bell again. Every body sat down; the curtain shook, rose sufficiently high to display severalpair of yellow boots paddling about, and there it remained.

   • 1899 February,Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, inBlackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […],→OCLC, part I,page209:

     Day after day, with the stamp and shuffle of sixtypair of bare feet behind me, eachpair under a 60-lb. load.

   • 1899 February,Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, inBlackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […],→OCLC, part I,page210:

     So, one evening, I made a speech in English with gestures, not one of which was lost to the sixtypairs of eyes before me, and the next morning I started the hammock off in front all right.

   • 2013 June 14,Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, inThe Guardian Weekly, volume189, number 1, page18:

     Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet. Perhaps we assume that our name, address and search preferences will be viewed by some unseenpair of corporate eyes, probably not human, and don't mind that much.

   I couldn't decide which of thepair of designer shirts I preferred, so I bought thepair.

   1. One of the constituent items that make up a pair.
      • 1992, Elizabeth Jane Howard,Marking Time: Volume 2 of The Cazalet Chronicle, page74:

        [S]he had finished the second sock, and pulled itspair out of the bag before handing them to her husband.

      • 1996,Kathy Lette,Mad Cows, page219:

        Must be good at athletics, home repairs, making mince interesting and finding thepair to the other glove.

2. Twopeople in arelationship,partnership orfriendship.

   Spouses should make a greatpair.

3. Used withbinary nouns (often in the plural to indicate multiple instances, since such nouns areplural only, except in some technical contexts)

   a pair of scissors; two pairs of spectacles; several pairs of jeans

4. Acouple of working animals attached to work together, as by a yoke.

   Apair is harder to drive than two mounts with separate riders.

5. (card games) Apoker hand that contains twocards of identicalrank, which cannot also count as a better hand.
6. (cricket) Ascore ofzeroruns (aduck) in bothinnings of a two-inningsmatch.

   Synonyms:pair of spectacles,spectacles

7. (baseball,informal) Adouble play, twoouts recorded in one play.

   They turned apair to end the fifth.

8. (baseball,informal) Adoubleheader, two games played on the same day between the same teams

   The Pirates took apair from the Phillies.

9. (rowing) Aboat for twosweep rowers.
10. (slang) A pair ofbreasts

    She's got a gorgeouspair.

11. (slang) A pair oftesticles

    Grow apair, mate.

12. (Australia,politics) Theexclusion of one member of aparliamentary party from a vote, if a member of the other party is absent for important personal reasons.
13. Two members of opposite parties or opinion, as in a parliamentary body, who mutually agree not to vote on a given question, or on issues of a party nature during a specified time.
    • 1999,Gyles Brandreth, chapter 3, inBreaking the Code:

      One-line business is optional; three-line business compulsory; when it's two lines you have to be on parade unless you have secured a 'pair' and cleared it with the 'pairing whip'.

    There were twopairs on the final vote.

14. (archaic) A number of things resembling one another, or belonging together; a set.
    • c.1622,John Fletcher,Philip Massinger, “The Sea-Voyage. A Comedy.”, inFifty Comedies and Tragedies. […],[part 1], London:[…] J[ohn] Macock[and H. Hills], forJohn Martyn,Henry Herringman, andRichard Marriot, published1679,→OCLC, Act I, scene i,page341:

      Thou lieſt; I ha’ nothing buy my ſkin, / And my cloaths; my ſword here, and my ſelf; / Two Crowns in my pocket; twopair of Cards; / And three falſe Dice: I can ſwim like a fiſh / Raſcal, nothing to hinder me.

    • 1842 December –1844 July,Charles Dickens, “Comprises, among Other Important Matters, Pecksniffian and Architectural, an Exact Relation of the Progress Made by Mr. Pinch in the Confidence and Friendship of the New Pupil”, inThe Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London:Chapman and Hall, […], published1844,→OCLC,page74:

      It would never do, you know, for me to be plunging myself into poverty and shabbiness and love in one room up threepair of stairs, and all that sort of thing.

15. (kinematics) In a mechanism, two elements, or bodies, which are so applied to each other as to mutually constrain relative motion; named in accordance with the motion it permits, as inturning pair,sliding pair,twisting pair.

The usual plural ofpair ispairs. This is a recent innovation; the pluralpair was formerly predominant and may be found in older texts like "A Key to Joyce's Arithmetic" (compareMiddle Englishpaire, pluralpaire). That is, a native English speaker, back in the early 19th century, would say20 pair of shoes, as opposed to today's20 pairs of shoes. In colloquial or dialectal speech, forms such as20 pair may still be found; because of their relegation to informal speech, they are now sometimesproscribed.

• (two objects in a group):duo,dyad,couple,brace,twosome,duplet; see alsoThesaurus:duo
• (pair of breasts): See alsoThesaurus:breasts

• → Tokelauan:pea

pair (third-person singular simple presentpairs,present participlepairing,simple past and past participlepaired)

1. (transitive) Togroup into one or more sets of two.

   The wedding guests werepaired boy/girl and groom's party/bride's party.

   • a.1744,Alexander Pope, “Sappho to Phaon”, inJohn Wilson Croker, editor,The Works of Alexander Pope, new edition, volume I, J. Murray, published1871,pages94–95:

     Brown as I am, an Ethiopian dame / Inspired young Perseus with a gen’rous flame; / Turtles and doves of diff’ring hues unite, / And glossy jet ispaired with shining white.

2. (computing) to link two electronicdevices wirelessly together, especially through a protocol such asBluetooth.

   It was not possible topair my smartphone with an incompatible smartwatch.

   • 2015, Microsoft, “How-to: Keyboards”, inhttp://www.microsoft.com‎^[1], retrieved2015-02-21:

     If your computer has a built-in, non-Microsoft transceiver, you canpair the device directly to the computer by using your computer’s Bluetooth software configuration program but without using the Microsoft Bluetooth transceiver.

3. (transitive) Tobring two (animals, notablydogs) together formating.
4. (intransitive) To come together for mating.
   • 1883, Alexander Stewart,Nether Lochaber, page112:

     The raven, in short, when hepairs, which he does at the earliest moment permitted by the laws of ravendom,pairs for life[…]

5. (politics,slang) To engage (oneself) with another of opposite opinions not to vote on a particular question or class of questions.
6. (intransitive) Tosuit; tofit, as acounterpart.
   • 1707, Nicholas Rowe,The Royal Convert, 2nd edition, Jacob Tonson, published1714,page46:

     My Heart was made to fit and pair with thine, / Simple and plain, and fraught with artleſs Tenderneſs; / Form’d to receive one Love, and only one, / But pleas’d and proud, and dearly fond of that, / It knows not what there can be in Variety, / And would not if it could.

• parity

• couple

FromMiddle Englishpairen,peiren, shortened form ofapeiren,empeiren, fromOld Frenchempeirier,empoirier, fromLate Latinpeiōrō.

pair (third-person singular simple presentpairs,present participlepairing,simple past and past participlepaired)

1. (obsolete,transitive) Toimpair, to make worse.
   • a.1376?, Sir Hugh Eglintoun (uncertain), transl., edited byGeorge Panton,The “Gest Hystoriale” of the Destruction of Troy, N. Trübner & Co., translation ofHistoria destructionis Troiae byGuido delle Colonne (in Medieval Latin), published1869,page117:

     Why dreghis þou þis dole, & deris þi seluyn? / Lefe of þis Langore, as my lefe brother, / Þat puttes þe to payne andpeires þi sight.

     Why endure this misery, and hurt yourself? / End this disease, my dear brother, / That pains you andimpairs your sight.

   • 1625,Francis [Bacon], “Of Innouations”, inThe Essayes […], 3rd edition, London:[…] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret,→OCLC,page140:

     It were good therefore, that Men in theirInnouations, would follow the Example of Time it ſelfe ; which indeedInnouateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees, ſcarce to be perceiued : For otherwiſe, whatſoeuer is New, is vnlooked for ; And euer it mends Some, andpaires Other[…]

   • 1590,Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, inThe Faerie Queene. […], London:[…] [John Wolfe] forWilliam Ponsonbie,→OCLC:

     'No faith so fast', quoth she, 'but flesh doespair'

2. (obsolete,intransitive) To become worse, todeteriorate.

• PIRA,RIPA,Ripa,pari-,raip

Unknown. Compare dialectalItalianpadire.

• IPA^(key):(Central,Balearic)[pəˈi]
• IPA^(key):(Valencia)[paˈiɾ]
• Rhymes:-i(ɾ)

pair (first-person singular presentpaeixo,first-person singular preteritepaí,past participlepaït)

1. (ambitransitive) todigest

   Synonym:digerir

2. (figurative,transitive) tohandle, tocope with

   de mal pair ―hard to take

• païble
• païda
• païdor
• païment

• “pair” inDiccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició,Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “pair”, inGran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana,Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana,2025
• “pair” inDiccionari normatiu valencià,Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “pair” inDiccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Inherited fromLatinpār(“equal”).

• IPA^(key):/pɛʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

pair (femininepaire,masculine pluralpairs,feminine pluralpaires)

1. (arithmetic)even(divisible by two)

   Antonym:impair

   nombrepair ―even number

2. (mathematical analysis)even

   Antonym:impair

   fonctionpaire ―even function

• parité

pair m (pluralpairs)

1. apeer, high nobleman/vassal (as in peer of the realm)

• “pair”, inTrésor de la langue française informatisé[Digitized Treasury of the French Language],2012.

• pari,pria,ripa

FromFrenchpeur(“fear”), compareHaitian Creolepè.

pair

1. to beafraid

• Alcée Fortier,Louisiana Folktales

pair

1. Alternative form ofpaire

Borrowed fromFrenchpair.

pair m (pluralpairi)

1. peer(noble)

• pér(Sursilvan,Sutsilvan)
• peir(Surmiran)

FromLatinpirum.

pair m (pluralpairs)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun,Puter,Vallader)pear

• paira
• pairer

• IPA^(key):/pai̯r/

FromMiddle Welshpeir, fromProto-Brythonic*pėr, fromProto-Celtic*kʷaryos. Cognate withIrishcoire.

pair m (pluralpeiriorpeirau)

1. cauldron,boiler
2. furnace

• peiran
• peiriaid

See the etymology of the correspondinglemma form.

pair

1. (literary)third-personsingularpresentindicative/future ofperi

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “pair”, inGeiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies