dyad

/ˌdaɪˈæd/

Other forms: dyads

A dyad is a group of two things or two people. If you have a dyad of brothers, there are two of them.

While you can use the noun dyad to mean "pair," "couple," or "duo," it's much more common to find the word used in a technical way. Sociologists, for example, use dyad to refer to social groups that consist of only two people, like a brother-sister dyad or a mother-child dyad. The word stems from the Greek dyas, "the number two," or "a group of two," from duo, "two."

Definitions of dyad

1. noun

   two items of the same kind
   synonyms: brace, couple, couplet, distich, duad, duet, duo, pair, span, twain, twosome, yoke

   types:

   doubleton

   (bridge) a pair of playing cards that are the only cards in their suit in the hand dealt to a player

   type of:

   2, II, deuce, two

   the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one or a numeral representing this number