pairing

Everyday

1. A pairing is two people or things put together, as a pair or a team. tree →
2. Pairing is the act of putting things into pairs. tree →
3. (technology) Pairing is connecting two devices, such as headphones and a phone, by Bluetooth. tree →

In the lessons

In school, pairing pupils is how teachers make pair-work partners. In maths, pairing numbers helps add quickly (1+9, 2+8) and pairing objects shows if a number is odd or even. In sport a pairing is a doubles team. In cooking, food pairings like cheese and apple go well together. Phrases: «a good pairing», «pairing up», «Bluetooth pairing».

Examples

• The teacher announced the pairings for the science project. tree →
• Pairing the socks takes ages after washing. tree →
• My headphones are pairing with my tablet. tree →
• Cheese and apple is a tasty pairing. tree →
• The tennis pairing won the doubles final. tree →
• Pairing 1 with 9 and 2 with 8 makes adding quick. tree →

Note

From «pair» (two). Homophones of «pair»: «pear» (fruit), «pare» (to peel). In maths problems: if you can pair every object with no one left over, the number is even; if one is left over, it is odd. Pairing the numbers 1 to 10 into (1,10), (2,9) … gives 5 pairs of 11, so the sum is 55.