reciprocal
adjective
Simple meaning
Action or such: mutual, uniformly felt or done by each party towards the other or others.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rihsihpruhkuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹɪˈsɪpɹəkəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Of a feeling, action or such: mutual, uniformly felt or done by each party towards the other or others; two-way.
Done, given, felt, or owed in return.
Mutually interchangeable.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Of a feeling, action or such: mutual, uniformly felt or done by each party towards the other or others; two-way.
Used this way, reciprocal is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- complementary , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use reciprocal
- “Risk is the reciprocal of safety.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Other combinations
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Concerning each of two or more persons or things.
Synonym of reciprocating: acting or applying reciprocally between two parties.
Mutually related; corresponding.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A relation of mutual dependence or action or influence.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A pronoun or pronominal phrase (as `each other') that expresses a mutual action or relationship between the individuals indicated in the plural subject.
A method of behavior therapy based on the inhibition of one response by the occurrence of another response that is mutually incompatible with it.
Hybridization involving a pair of crosses that reverse the sexes associated with each genotype.
A method of behavior therapy based on the inhibition of one response by the occurrence of another response that is mutually incompatible with it.
A unit of conductance equal to the reciprocal of an ohm.
Law stating that the proportions in which two elements separately combine with a third element are also the proportions in which they combine together.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: of a feeling or action or such
Antonyms
Sense: of a feeling or action or such
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