Counterpart
//ˈkaʊntɚˌpɑɹt// noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Either of two parts that fit together, or complement one another.
"Those brass knobs and their hollow counterparts interlock perfectly."
- 2 a duplicate copy wordnet
- 3 A duplicate of a legal document.
- 4 a person or thing having the same function or characteristics as another wordnet
- 5 One who or that which resembles another.
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- 6 One who or that which has corresponding functions or characteristics.
"Her French counterpart attended the meeting via video call."
- 7 Either half of a flattened fossil when the rock has split along the plane of the fossil.
Verb
- 1 To counterbalance. transitive
Example
More examples"Israeli Prime Minister Mr. Netanyahu will be hosted this evening by his German counterpart, Mrs. Merkel, in the Federal Chancellor's Office in Berlin."
Etymology
From Middle English conterpart, countre parte (“duplicate of a legal document”), equivalent to counter- + part. Compare Old French contrepartie, itself from contre (“facing, opposite”) (from Latin contra (“against”)) + partie (“copy of a person or thing”) (originally past participle of partīre (“to divide”)).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.