Duel

How to spell duel

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce duel

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does duel mean?

1. nounA prearranged combat or contest between two people, traditionally with weapons, fought to settle a point of honour.
2. verbTo fight a formal combat or compete head to head against a single opponent.

Duel in a sentence

• noun

  The two officers settled their quarrel in a duel at dawn.

• verb

  The two champions will duel for the title on Saturday.

• noun

  The novel ends with a pistol duel between the rivals.

• verb

  The fencers prepared to duel in the final round.

Where does duel come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin duellum, an old poetic form of bellum, meaning 'war' or 'combat'. By the Middle Ages, Latin writers had reinterpreted duellum as if it were linked to duo, meaning 'two', so it came to suggest a fight specifically between two people. English borrowed it in the sixteenth century, partly through Italian and Latin scholarship, just as the formal code of honour combat was becoming fashionable among gentlemen. The spelling kept the single 'l' and the 'ue' vowel, which is exactly why it is so easily confused with 'dual', meaning twofold. Remembering that a duel is a contest between two foes, and that it shares its 'duo' ancestry, helps fix the meaning, though the spelling 'duel' (one l, ends in -el) must be kept distinct from 'dual'.

How the word is built

• duel (from Latin duellum: combat between two)
• no affix

Words that sound like duel

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• dual: Consisting of, or relating to, two parts, aspects, or functions.