Other forms: doubles, doubled, doubling
Double means twice as much, or made of two of something. A double espresso, a double bed, double doors that open in the middle.
It is a verb as well: prices double, populations double, you double the recipe for six people. As a noun it is someone who looks exactly like another person — a stunt double stands in for the actor in the dangerous shot. It sticks to other words easily, giving double-decker, double-check, double-book, double-glazed. Double as means to serve a second purpose, as in the sofa doubles as a bed. And on the double, out of the army, means immediately.
1adjectivedoubleTwice the usual size, amount or strength.~31%
“He ordered a double whisky and no ice.”
synonyms: twofold, twice
2adjectivedualMade of two parts, or meant for two people.~63%
“They booked a double room with a view of the yard.”
3verbbecomeTo become, or to make something, twice as much.~2%
“The price has doubled since we last looked.”
4nounexactlyA person who looks exactly like another person.~2%
“She is the double of her grandmother at that age.”
5verbserveTo serve a second purpose as well as the first.~2%
“The kitchen table doubles as his desk.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 21 sentences found in the wild and placed 18 of them on a sense (3 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Latin duplus meant twofold — two folds, from a root meaning to fold. Old French wore it down to doble, and English took it whole. The word doublet, for two versions of one word that arrived by different routes, comes from the same idea, and double is itself a doublet of duple.
Proto-Indo-European
*pel- (fold)
Old French
doble
Middle English
double
English, today
double
From Middle English double, from Old French doble. From Middle English double, from Old French doble, double, from Latin duplus (“twofold”). a doublet of doppio and duple.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA