pair

pair is one of the 1000 most common headwords.

paint - pair - paper

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: pâr, IPA ^(key): /pɛə(r)/
• (US) enPR: pâr, IPA ^(key): /pɛr/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Homophones: pare, pear

Noun

Singular pair

Plural pairs

1. (countable) A pair is two things that go together.

   She has many pairs of shoes, but she only has one pair of pants.

   Those two make a lovely pair, don't they.

Verb

Plain form pair

Third-person singular pairs

Past tense paired

Past participle paired

Present participle pairing

1. (transitive & intransitive) (often passive) If you pair two people or things, you put them together.

   Young women were often paired with older men.

   They paired up at the dance.

Related words

• unpaired