couplet

American  

[kuhp-lit] / ˈkʌp lɪt /

noun

• couplets
  plural

1. a pair of successive lines of verse, especially a pair that rhyme and are of the same length.

2. a pair; couple.

3. Music. any of the contrasting sections of a rondo occurring between statements of the refrain.

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couplet British  

/ ˈkʌplɪt /

noun

1. two successive lines of verse, usually rhymed and of the same metre

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couplet Cultural  

1. A pair of lines of verse that rhyme. Some poems, such as “The Night Before Christmas,” are written entirely in couplets:

   `Twas the night before Christmas , when all through the house

   Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

   The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

   In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• couplets
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of couplet

From Middle French, dating back to 1570–80; see origin at couple, -et

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Explanation

A couplet is two lines of poetry that usually rhyme. Here's a famous couplet: "Good night! Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow / That I shall say good night till it be morrow." The couplet above comes from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which is a play, not a poem. But Shakespeare often used rhyming couplets at the end of scenes to signal the ending. Couplets are very common in poetry. Often whole poems are written in couplet form — two lines of rhyming poetry, followed by two more lines with a different rhyme, and so on. Robert Frost, one of America's great poets, wrote many poems using couplets.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

couplet couplets

The countryish “Run Away” opens with the couplet “In the time of confession / In the hour of the storm,” as Beck, sounding dejected and lost, begs not to be left alone.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

So fullness of that scene did have to be compressed down to that little couplet.

From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2024

ChatGPT failed the assignment, writing a couplet consisting of seven characters.

From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 2023

On Sept. 6, 2014, when The Times asked for verse from readers, Koch weighed in with a long poem about grammar, which included this couplet:

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2023

So goes a famous Pashtun tapa, a couplet my grandmother taught me.

From "Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World" by Malala Yousafzai

He delivers couplets like “I need somebody sent down from the sun / That talks to me how you used to” as if he believes that if he stops singing he might die.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

The series’ musical landscape also includes a myriad of folk songs, such as the drunken tavern tune “Alice With Three Fingers” and the childish rhyming couplets of “The Hammer and the Anvil.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026

She planned to hang traditional Chinese couplets -- usually on auspicious red paper -- before sharing a family meal.

From Barron's ● Feb. 13, 2026

Ahead of Lunar New Year this month, Chinese households typically decorate their doors with couplets - a set of auspicious writings heralding health and prosperity in the new year.

From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2026

The sluggers turned as a unit to look toward the source of the noise, but Jesse hadn’t noticed and was still talking about memory, this time in rhyming couplets.

From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson

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Related Words

• verse

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