A dvandva or copulative or coordinative compound refers to two or more objects that could be connected in sense by the conjunction 'and'. Dvandvas are common in some languages such as Sanskrit, where the term originates, as well as Chinese and Japanese, but less common in English (The term is not often found in English dictionaries.). Examples: matara-pitara (Sanskrit for 'mother and father'), shanchuan and yamakawa (Chinese and Japanese respectively for 'mountains and rivers'), bittersweet and singer-songwriter in English, "tragicomic".

See also

• Sanskrit compounds

Linguistic morphology | Sanskrit

Dvandva