reciprocal
/ɹɪˈsɪpɹək(ə)l/
reciprocal adjective: of a feeling, action or such: mutual, uniformly felt or done by each party towards the other or others; two-way.
Adjective
reciprocal (not comparable)
- Of a feeling, action or such: mutual, uniformly felt or done by each party towards the other or others; two-way.
- reciprocal love
- reciprocal duties
- Synonyms:
- reciprocating
- Mutually interchangeable.
- These two rules will render a definition reciprocal with the thing defined.1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […]...
- Expressing mutual action, applied to pronouns and verbs; also in a broad sense: reflexive.
- Used to denote different kinds of mutual relation; often with reference to the substitution of reciprocals for given quantities.
Noun
reciprocal (plural reciprocals)
- The number obtained by dividing 1 by another given number; the result of exchanging the numerator and the denominator of a fraction.
- 0.5 is the reciprocal of 2.
- Synonyms:
- multiplicative inverse
- A construction expressing mutual action.
- Depending on where reciprocalization applies (syntax vs. lexicon), the relevant reciprocal verbs are claimed to exhibit specific properties, in particular: (i) syntactic reciprocals are fully productive whereas lexical reciprocals have only limited productivity; […]2008, Ekkehard König, Volker Gast, Reciprocals and Reflexives: Theoretical and Typological Explorations
reciprocal meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
reciprocal in Hindi
- done by each of two people towards the other
- आपसी āpsī, पारस्परिक pārasparik
reciprocal in Tamil
- இருபுறமும் பரிமாறுதல், எதிரெதிர், எதிர் ஈடான, கொடுத்து வாங்கு, கொண்டு கொடு, கொண்டு கொடுக்கும்
reciprocal in Urdu
- باہمی, معاوض, متابادل
reciprocal in Bengali
- reciprocal, mutual, one another, each other
- পরস্পর porośpor
More languagesFewer languages
- reciprocal in Malayalam
- വ്യുൽക്രമം
- reciprocal in Kannada
- ಒಪ್ಪನಿಗೊಬ್ಬ, ಒಂದಕ್ಕೊಂದು, ಪರಸ್ಪರ, ಅನ್ಯೋನ್ಯ
- reciprocal in Gujarati
- પારસ્પરિક
- reciprocal in Tagalog
- kabaligtad
- reciprocal in Arabic
- مُتَبَادَل mutabādal, مَقْلُوب maqlūb
- reciprocal in Indonesian
- timbal balik
- reciprocal in Vietnamese
- đối ứng
Examples of reciprocal in a sentence
- The sequence of reciprocals has zero as its limit.
- The English reciprocal pronouns are each other and one another.
- Rather, such difficulties are reciprocal, so a 'double empathy' problem exists.
Synonyms of reciprocal
- reciprocating
- multiplicative inverse
- mutual
- two-way
- contrary
- opposite
- converse
- inverse
- inverted
- cross
6 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of reciprocal
| plural | reciprocals |
|---|
Origin of reciprocal
From Latin reciprocus, possibly from a phrase such as reque proque (“back and forth, to and fro”), from re- (“back”), prō (“forwards”) and -que (“and”).
Words formed from reciprocal
Phrases with reciprocal
Questions about reciprocal
- What does reciprocal mean?
- Reciprocal means of a feeling, action or such: mutual, uniformly felt or done by each party towards the other or others; two-way.
- What is reciprocal in Hindi?
- Reciprocal in Hindi is आपसी (āpsī), पारस्परिक (pārasparik). See Reciprocal meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is reciprocal?
- Reciprocal can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce reciprocal?
- Reciprocal is pronounced /ɹɪˈsɪpɹək(ə)l/.
Words near reciprocal in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: reciprocal (page history and authors); reciprocal (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reciprocal (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); পরস্পর (Bengali) (page history and authors); reciprocal (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reciprocal (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reciprocal (Gujarati, 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-reciprocal.ogg.
Cite this entry: “reciprocal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reciprocal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.