duopoly

English
WOTD – 29 July 2023

Etymology
PIE word
*dwóh₁
Coca-Cola and Pepsi are often called a duopoly (sense 1) in the cola soft drinks market.

From duo- (prefix meaning ‘two’) +‎ -poly (suffix meaning ‘pertaining to the number of sellers in a market’), by analogy with monopoly.[1]

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /djuːˈɒpəli/, /duː-/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /duˈɑpəli/
    • Audio (GA)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɒpəli
  • Hyphenation: du‧o‧po‧ly

Noun

duopoly (countable and uncountable, plural duopolies)

  1. (economics) An economic condition in which two sellers exert (most of the) control over the market of a commodity.
  2. (by extension)
    1. The domination of a field of endeavour by two entities or people.
      • 2012 June 29, Kevin Mitchell, “Roger Federer back from Wimbledon 2012 brink to beat Julien Benneteau”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-11-15:
        In 2011, his spirit and body were shattered by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semi-finals. Last night, the stakes were just as high – even though the tournament is not out of the first week – because there is a creeping perception that the [Roger] Federer–[Rafael] Nadal duopoly is slowly giving way under pressure from below.
      • 2018 February 10, “Spain’s centrist Ciudadanos are on the march”, in The Economist‎, London: Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-05-17:
        In Spain, Socialist and PP governments have alternated since the 1980s. This cosy duopoly was weakened by the long recession that followed the bursting of Spain’s housing bubble in 2007.
      • 2024 May 4, John Naughton, “The internet is in decline – it needs rewilding”, in The Guardian‎:
        And these industrial farms have concentrated into a series of duopolies. Google and Apple’s browsers have nearly 85% of the world market share. Microsoft and Apple’s two desktop operating systems have almost 90%. Google runs about 90% of global search. More than half of all phones come from Apple and Samsung, while 99% of mobile operating systems are from Google or Apple. Apple and Google’s email clients manage nearly 90% of global email. GoDaddy and Cloudflare serve about 50% of global domain name system requests. And so on.
    2. (broadcasting) A situation in which two or more radio or television stations in the same city or community share common ownership.
      Synonym: (Canada) twinstick

Alternative spellings

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Translations

References
  1. “duopoly, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “duopoly, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading
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