Meaning & use
dyad
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Meanings
nouncountablespecialist
Two people who form a pair and are studied as one unit, such as a couple, friends or a parent and child.
Grammar: Plural dyads; used in social science: the dyad was observed.
Patterns
- a dyad of something
Researchers watched each mother-child dyad for ten minutes.
In a dyad, one person's mood can quickly shape the other's.
The therapist works with couples and other dyads.
nouncountableformal
Any set of two things considered together, such as two linked ideas or elements.
Grammar: Used in general academic writing for a pair of items.
Patterns
- the dyad of something and something
The essay explores the dyad of freedom and responsibility.
Light and shadow form a visual dyad in the painting.
The writer treats memory and forgetting as a dyad.
nouncountablebiology
In biology, one of the paired chromosomes that result from the first division of a cell in meiosis.
Grammar: A narrow biology term, mostly in textbooks.
Each dyad in the cell later separates into two single chromosomes.
Students labeled a dyad on the diagram of meiosis.
The microscope showed a clear dyad in the cell.
Word forms
| plural | dyads |
|---|
Common combinations
- mother-child dyad
- The study followed each mother-child dyad for a year.
- a dyad of
- The team formed a dyad of teacher and student.
- form a dyad
- Two strangers can form a dyad quickly in a shared task.
- dyad relationship
- A dyad relationship has just two members.
- study dyads
- Psychologists study dyads to understand conversation.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pair
- Pair is the everyday word for two things together, while dyad is a technical term, often for two people.
- couple
- Couple usually means romantic partners, but dyad covers any two-person relationship.
- duo
- Duo often refers to two performers or partners, whereas dyad is used in research.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: dyad or dyed?
dyad vs dyed
Dyed is the past tense of dye, meaning colored with a dye, and is unrelated to dyad.
Practice
In the study, each teacher and student formed a ____ whose conversations were recorded.
Choose one answer.
A dyad is a pair, and one teacher plus one student is two people. A triad has three members, and the others are not scientific terms for two.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dyad”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.