duplex

[doo-pleks, dyoo-]

noun

1. duplex apartment.

2. duplex house.

3. paper or cardboard having different colors, finishes, or stocks on opposite sides.

4. Printing.

   1. a method of reproducing an illustration using two halftone plates, one black and the other in a color.

   2. a printing press equipped to print both sides of a sheet in one pass.

5. Genetics.,  a double-stranded region of DNA.

adjective

1. having two parts; double; twofold.

2. (of a machine) having two identical working units, operating together or independently, in a single framework or assembly.

3. 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)

1. to make duplex; make or change into a duplex.

   Many owners are duplexing their old houses for extra income.

duplex

/ ˈdjuːplɛks /

noun

1. a duplex apartment or house

2. a double-stranded region in a nucleic acid molecule

adjective

1. having two parts

2. machinery having pairs of components of independent but identical function

3. permitting the transmission of simultaneous signals in both directions in a radio, telecommunications, or computer channel

Other Word Forms

• duplexity noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of duplex¹

1810–20; < Latin: twofold, double, equivalent to du ( o ) two + -plex -plex

Word History and Origins

Origin of duplex¹

C19: from Latin: twofold, from duo two + -plex _-fold

Example Sentences

In most cities, these parcels would be the sole domain of single-family homes interrupted by the occasional duplex.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

But cleaning a house that size was a massive undertaking, and it seemed impossible to keep track of everyone’s belongings, as compared with when they lived in a smaller duplex.

Read more on MarketWatch

But cleaning a house that size was a massive undertaking, and it seemed impossible to keep track of everyone’s belongings, as compared with when they lived in a smaller duplex.

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They mostly invested in real estate — two commercial buildings and two residential duplexes.

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Fueling the anxiety: a raft of recent California laws and bills that make it easier to build duplexes and apartment buildings in single-family neighborhoods like Altadena.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal