duel
Syllables: du·el/ˈˈd͡ʒuːəl//ˈdul/
duel noun: arranged, regular combat between two private persons, often over a matter of honor.
Noun
duel (plural duels)
- Arranged, regular combat between two private persons, often over a matter of honor.
- I have often thought since, how different my fate might have been, had I not fallen in love with Nora at that early age; and had I not flung the wine in Quin’s face, and so brought on the duel.1844 January–December, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “In Which I Show Myself to Be a Man of Spirit”, in “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. [The Luck of Barry Lyndon.]”, in Miscellanies: Prose and...
- Of course, not all the Railway Members were men of such talent. One member was "chiefly eminent as a whist player," and another was known for his duel with a fellow M.P. fought at Wormwood Scrubs in 1840.1960 March, N. Caplan, “The Railway Member of Parliament”, in Railway Magazine, page 209
- Historically, the wager of battle (judicial combat).
- Any battle or struggle between two contending persons, forces, groups, or ideas.
- a sniper duel
- But it leaves them with a few destroyers, the American destroyer force is falling back, and then you have the two cruiser lines with their respective battleships coming in for the big duel.2019 March 6, Drachinifel, 25:33 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2022
Verb
duel (third-person singular simple present duels, present participle (US) dueling or (UK) duelling, simple past and past participle (US) dueled or (UK) duelled)
- To engage in a battle.
- The two dogs were duelling for the bone.
- The country’s fencing federation has officially recognised lightsaber duelling as a competitive sport, granting the weapon from George Lucas’s space saga the same status as the foil, epee and sabre, the traditional blades used at the Olympics.2019 February 19, “Lightsaber duelling registered as official sport in France”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 08 Nov 2020
duel meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
duel in Hindi
- combat between two persons
- द्वंद्वयुद्ध dvandvayuddh
- struggle between two parties
- द्वंद्वयुद्ध dvandvayuddh
duel in Tamil
- கோலாரிக்கம், துவந்துவம், ஒண்டிக்கொண்டி சண்டை
duel in Marathi
- द्वंद्वयुद्ध, द्वंदयुद्ध, द्वन्दयुद्ध
duel in Urdu
- مجادلہ
More languagesFewer languages
- duel in Telugu
- ద్వంద్వయుద్ధము dvandvayuddhamu, ద్వంద్వము dvandvamu
- duel in Malayalam
- ദ്വന്ദ്വയുദ്ധം, രണ്ടുപേർ തമ്മിൽ നടക്കുന്ന യുദ്ധം
- duel in Kannada
- ಜೋಡಿಹೋರಾಟ, ದ್ವಂದ್ವ ಯುದ್ಧ, ಇಬ್ಬರ ನಡುವೆ ಘರ್ಷಣೆ, ಹೋರಾಟ
- duel in Gujarati
- દ્વંદ્વયુદ્ધ dvandvayuddh
- duel in Nepali
- द्वंद्वयुद्ध, द्वन्दयुद्ध
- duel in Tagalog
- akip
- duel in Arabic
- مُبَارَزَة mubāraza
- duel in Persian
- دوئل du'el
- duel in Vietnamese
- quyết đấu, đấu tay đôi
Examples of duel in a sentence
- It has been 200 years, minus a few days, since Vice President Aaron Burr fatally shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel here.2004 July 5, Jason George, “A Duel Evokes Dueling Emotions Over a Unique Place in History”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the...
- John Cilley of Maine in a duel in 1838, Congress imposed a prohibition on pistol duels in the District of Columbia.2017 June 14, Julian Zelizer, “The challenge of protecting members of Congress”, in CNN, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2017:
- Apple comes out swinging in the duel of the data titans [title]2021 May 1, John Naughton, “Apple comes out swinging in the duel of the data titans”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 21 Oct...
Forms of duel
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | duels |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | duels |
| present participle US | dueling |
| present participle UK | duelling |
| past participle US | dueled |
| past US | dueled |
| past participle UK | duelled |
| past UK | duelled |
Origin of duel
From Medieval Latin duellum (“fight between two men, duel”), itself from Old Latin duellum (“war, fight”), which survived in Classical Latin as a rare byform of bellum and was later reinterpreted as “duel” by unetymological association with duo (“two”). May have entered English through Middle French duel.
Words formed from duel
Words that rhyme with duel
Questions about duel
- What does duel mean?
- Duel means arranged, regular combat between two private persons, often over a matter of honor.
- What is duel in Hindi?
- Duel in Hindi is द्वंद्वयुद्ध (dvandvayuddh). See Duel meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use duel in a sentence?
- It has been 200 years, minus a few days, since Vice President Aaron Burr fatally shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel here.
- What part of speech is duel?
- Duel can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce duel?
- Duel is pronounced /ˈˈd͡ʒuːəl/.
- What is the plural of duel?
- The plural of duel is duels.
Words near duel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: duel (page history and authors); duel (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); duel (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); duel (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ద్వంద్వము (Telugu) (page history and authors); duel (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); duel (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); દ્વંદ્વયુદ્ધ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); duel (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-dual.ogg, en-us-duel.ogg.
Cite this entry: “duel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/duel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.