diptych
Americannoun
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a hinged two-leaved tablet used in ancient times for writing on with a stylus.
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Usually diptychs.
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a similar tablet of wood or metal containing on one leaf the names of those among the living, and on the other those among the dead, for whom prayers and Masses are said.
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the lists of such persons.
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the intercession in the course of which these names were introduced.
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a pair of pictures or carvings on two panels, usually hinged together.
noun
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a pair of hinged wooden tablets with waxed surfaces for writing
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a painting or carving on two panels, usually hinged like a book
Etymology
Origin of diptych
1615–25; < Late Latin diptycha writing tablet with two leaves < Greek díptycha, neuter plural of díptychos folded together, equivalent to di- di- 1 + -ptychos, verbid of ptýssein to fold
Vocabulary lists containing diptych
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.
The play, a diptych, has a second act in which the same actors play the roles of the parents of their first-act characters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2025
“Here We Are,” which is constructed as a musical diptych, stitches together two unrelated yet thematically resonant Buñuel films, “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” and “The Exterminating Angel.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2023
Violette Bule’s “Dream America,” a photographic diptych of a dishwasher carrying a tray of red, white and blue plates and the stars and stripes, evokes August Sander’s famous portrait of a bulging, burdened bricklayer.
From New York Times ● Mar. 8, 2023
But the black cat who gazes outward from the bottom of a diptych just emphasizes the spectator's essential solitude.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 17, 2023
A diptych, with a Virgin and Child, and a portrait of an old man, dated 1513, came in separate parts into the collections of Mr Posonyi and Count Lanckoronski at Vienna.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 5 "Hinduism" to "Home, Earls of" by Various
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.
