Duet

How to spell duet

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce duet

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does duet mean?

1. nounA piece of music performed by two singers or players, or the pair who perform it.

Duet in a sentence

• The two singers rehearsed their duet for the wedding ceremony.

• The pianist and the cellist closed the concert with a tender duet.

Where does duet come from?

Language of origin: Italian

This word came into English in the late 1700s from the Italian duetto, a little musical piece for two voices or instruments. Duetto is a diminutive of duo, meaning simply 'two', which in turn rests on the Latin duo, 'two'. The same Latin root lies behind a whole family of everyday words such as 'double', 'dual', and 'duo', so the opening 'du' that signals 'two' is a reliable spelling anchor. Italian shed the second 'o' of duetto as the word settled into English, leaving the compact spelling we use today. Because the word is short and the single 't' matches the original Italian, it rarely causes serious trouble for writers.

How the word is built

• du- (from Latin duo: two)
• -et (Italian diminutive suffix)