duplex
Americannoun
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paper or cardboard having different colors, finishes, or stocks on opposite sides.
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Printing.
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a method of reproducing an illustration using two halftone plates, one black and the other in a color.
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a printing press equipped to print both sides of a sheet in one pass.
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Genetics. a double-stranded region of DNA.
adjective
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having two parts; double; twofold.
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(of a machine) having two identical working units, operating together or independently, in a single framework or assembly.
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pertaining to or noting a telecommunications system, as most telephone systems, permitting the simultaneous transmission of two messages in opposite directions over one channel.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a duplex apartment or house
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a double-stranded region in a nucleic acid molecule
adjective
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having two parts
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machinery having pairs of components of independent but identical function
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permitting the transmission of simultaneous signals in both directions in a radio, telecommunications, or computer channel
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of duplex
1810–20; < Latin: twofold, double, equivalent to du ( o ) two + -plex -plex
Explanation
A two-family house can be called a duplex. Living in a duplex is great — unless the people with whom you share a wall like to have all-night yodeling parties. In the U.K. a duplex is an apartment with an upstairs and a downstairs, but in North America a duplex is a building divided into two separate living spaces. Most duplexes are built with the two homes side by side, although you can also live in a duplex with apartments on two floors. The Latin duplex means "twofold," from duo, "two," and -plex, "to intertwine." The word was coined in the U.S. around 1922.
Vocabulary lists containing duplex
Little Fires Everywhere
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Land of the Cranes
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Google said it's constantly improving its assistant as well and that its Duplex technology can phone restaurants to book tables and verify hours.
From Reuters • Jul. 17, 2023
Google has shared how it’s using artificial intelligence, including its restaurant-calling Duplex tech, to try and keep business hours up to date on Google Maps.
From The Verge • Apr. 7, 2022
The hottest Airbnb in town just might be the Doublemint Duplex, a home whose extensive renovation was very publicly chronicled by Young House Love bloggers John and Sherry Petersik.
From Washington Post • Aug. 15, 2019
Google has built a system called Duplex that can phone a local restaurant, make reservations, and fool the person on the other end of the line into thinking the caller is a real person.
From New York Times • Nov. 20, 2018
Duplex Telegraphy The telegraph was a success, but many improvements were yet to be made.
From The Story of Great Inventions by Burns, Elmer Ellsworth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
