couple

/ˈkʌp.əl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

South Asia/ˈkə.pᵻl/

couple noun: two of the same kind connected or considered together.

Image: Derrick Coetzee from Seattle, USA, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

couple (plural couples)

Two of the same kind connected or considered together.
- A couple of police officers appeared at the door.
- 'Tis in some sort with Friends (Pardon the Coarseness of the illustration) as it is with Dogs in Couples. They should be of the same Size; and Humour; and That which Pleases the One should Please the Other1692, Roger L'Estrange, Fables, of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists: with Morals and Reflexions, page 64
Synonyms:

brace
Two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.
- The number of Souls in the Kingdom being uſually reckon'd one Million and a half, Of theſe I calculate there may be about tvvo hundred thouſand Couple vvhoſe VVives are Breeders, from vvhich Number I Subſtract thirty Thouſand Couples, vvho are able to maintain their ovvn Children, […]1729, [Jonathan Swift], A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents, or the Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick, Dublin: […]...
- Having a beloved couple (Jim and Pam, Cory and Topanga) exchange vows was once a foolproof way to juice TV ratings.2026 May 27, Judy Berman, “When Did On-Screen Weddings Get So Bleak?”, in TIME, archived from the original on 28 May 2026
Synonyms:

twosome
(informal) A small number.
- A couple of billiard balls, all mud and dirt, two battered hats, a champagne bottle […]1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC
- ‘Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, and it need not interfere very much with one’s other occupations.’1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Red-Headed League
Synonyms:

few, handful
One of the pairs of plates of two metals which compose a voltaic battery, called a voltaic couple or galvanic couple.
A turning effect created by forces that produce a non-zero external torque.
A couple-close.
That which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler.
- I’ll keep my stables where / I lodge my wife; I’ll go in couples with her;c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- As we passed the deserted mountain-dairy, we must have crossed the fresh track of a hare, because the hounds became rather uneasy in the couples.1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 27

Adjective

couple (not comparable)

(Canada, US, informal) Two or (a) small number of.
- Put any couple guys in a tricked out car and a couple of bandannas […]" He trailed off.2005, Deirdre Savoy, Body of Truth, page 179
- Since we were now living so close, at least those couple hours of talking together helped boost our spirits.2005, Elaine Bonzelaar, Those First Two Years, page 47

Determiner

couple

(Canada, US, colloquial) Two or a few, a small number of.
- A couple fewer people show up every week.
- I'll be there in a couple minutes.

Verb

couple (third-person singular simple present couples, present participle coupling, simple past and past participle coupled)

(transitive) To join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).
- Now the conductor will couple the train cars.
- I've coupled our system to theirs.
Synonyms:

affix
(dated, transitive) To join in wedlock; to marry.
- I am just going to perform a very good office, it is to assist with the archbishop, in degrading a parson who couples all our beggars1801, Jonathan Swift, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 14, page 59
Synonyms:

bewed
(intransitive) To join in sexual intercourse; to copulate.
- On their wedding night they coupled nine times.1987, Alan Norman Bold, Robert Giddings, Who was really who in fiction, Longman
- She had the brilliant inventor and craftsman Daedalus construct her an artificial cow, in which she hid and induced the bull to couple with her […]2001, John Fisher, Geoff Garvey, The rough guide to Crete,, page 405
Synonyms:

have sex
(transitive) To cause (two animals) to copulate, to bring (two animals) together for mating.
- The Parilia was generally considered to be the best time for coupling the rams and the ewes.1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 328
(transitive) To enter (multiple horses with the same owner) into a race so that a single bet can be placed on any of them winning.

couple meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

couple in Hindi

two partners: युगल yugal, जोड़ा joṛā, दंपति dampati

couple in Tamil

two of the same kind considered together: இரு iru, இரண்டு iraṇṭu
two partners: ஜோடி jōṭi, இணை iṇai, இரட்டை iraṭṭai, தம்பதி tampati
a small number of: சிறிய ciṟiya, சிறு ciṟu, சில cila
to join together: சேர் cēr, இணை iṇai

couple in Urdu

two partners: جوڑا joṛā, جُفْت juft, زَوج zauj

couple in Bengali

couple, pair: যুগল jugol

More languagesFewer languages

couple in Telugu: మిథునము mithunamu, దోయి dōyi, జోడన jōḍana
couple in Malayalam: ദമ്പതികൾ dampatikaḷ
couple in Kannada: ಜೋಡಿ, ಜೊತೆ, ದಂಪತಿ, ನವ ವಧೂವರರು
couple in Punjabi: جوڑا joṛā, ਜੋੜਾ joṛā, ਜੋੜਨਾ joṛnā
couple in Gujarati: દંપતી, દંપતિ, યુગલ
couple in Odia: ଯମ jama
couple in Sanskrit: द्वंद्व dvaṃdva, मिथुन mithuna
couple in Nepali: जोडी joḍī
couple in Pashto: زوج zawj
couple in Arabic: زَوْجَانِ zawjāni, بَعْضُ baʕḍu
couple in Thai: คู่ kûu
couple in Vietnamese: đôi vợ chồng, đôi
couple in Myanmar: လင်မယား langma.ya:, ယမက ya.ma.ka.

Examples of couple in a sentence

[…]couple of tables; one of which bore some preparations for supper; while, on the other […]1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby:
When we got on board again after a couple of hours on shore[…]1902, A. Henry Savage Landor, Across Coveted Lands:
But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
Apparently, Ann in particular liked these couple pages of the character thing.2006, Eric Nolen-Weathington, George A. Khoury, Arthur Adams, Modern Masters: Arthur Adams, volume six, page 22:

All 40 example sentences with couple

Synonyms of couple

2 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of couple

Forms of couple

Noun
plural	couples
alternative form (obsolete)	copel
Verb
third-person singular present	couples
present participle	coupling
past participle	coupled
past	coupled

Past tense of couple: coupled

Plural of couple: couples

Origin of couple

From Middle English couple, from Old French couple, from Latin cōpula. Doublet of copula.

Phrases with couple

6 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with couple

Questions about couple

What does couple mean?: Couple means two of the same kind connected or considered together.
What is couple in Hindi?: Couple in Hindi is युगल (yugal), जोड़ा (joṛā), दंपति (dampati). See Couple meaning in Hindi.
How do you use couple in a sentence?: […]couple of tables; one of which bore some preparations for supper; while, on the other […]
What part of speech is couple?: Couple can be a noun, an adjective, a determiner or a verb.
How do you pronounce couple?: Couple is pronounced /ˈkʌp.əl/.
What is the plural of couple?: The plural of couple is couples.

Words near couple in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: couple (page history and authors); যুগল (Bengali) (page history and authors); జోడన (Telugu) (page history and authors); couple (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); جوڑا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); couple (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଯମ (Odia) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-couple.ogg, en-us-couple.ogg.

Cite this entry: “couple.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/couple. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.