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''reciprocal'' ⚬ Entries

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Primary

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''reciprocal'' ⚬｜Definition｜1st｜20260511125811-00-⌔

reciprocal - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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.
    • ✤ Synonym: reciprocating
    • ✤ * reciprocal love*
    • ✤ * reciprocal duties*
    • ✤ a reciprocal invitation to lunch
    • ✤ Let our reciprocall vowes be remembred.1
  • Mutually interchangeable.
    • ✤ These two rules will render a definition reciprocal with the thing defined.2
  • (grammar) Expressing mutual action, applied to pronouns and verbs; also in a broad sense: reflexive.
  • (mathematics) Used to denote different kinds of mutual relation; often with reference to the substitution of reciprocals for given quantities.

Noun

reciprocal (plural reciprocals)

  • (arithmetic) The number obtained by dividing 1 by another given number; the result of exchanging the numerator and the denominator of a fraction.
    • ✤ Synonym: multiplicative inverse
    • ✤ 0.5 is the reciprocal of 2.
  • (grammar) 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; […]3

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɹɪˈsɪpɹək(ə)l/

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi], page 304, column 2: ↩

  2. 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, […], published 1726, →OCLC: ↩

  3. 2008, Ekkehard König, Volker Gast, Reciprocals and Reflexives: Theoretical and Typological Explorations: ↩

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Secondary

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