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Added 9 October 2026

reciprocal

/ɹɪˈsɪpɹək(ə)l/ adjective

Categories: Describing WordsUncommon Words

In Latin: mūtuus, reciprocus Wiktionary

adjective Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about reciprocal at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

  1. Of a feeling, action or such: mutual, uniformly felt or done by each party towards the other or others; two-way.
    reciprocal love
  2. Mutually interchangeable.
  3. Expressing mutual action, applied to pronouns and verbs; also in a broad sense: reflexive.

noun

  1. 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.
  2. A construction expressing mutual action.

Origin

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”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Related Words: reciprocativemutualcomplementaryinteractiveinterchangeablecorrelativeinteractionalreciprocatoryreciprocatingvindicatoryinverseretributory

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