Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An economic or political condition in which power is concentrated in two persons or groups.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun economics A market situation in which two companies exclusively provide a particular product or service.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[duo– + (mono)poly.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

By analogy with monopoly based on Greek δυο (dyo, "two") + πωλειν (polein, "to sell").

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Examples

  • Until something like that happens, the duopoly is the state of the world, no matter how much Ralph Nader bangs his little fists.

    Matthew Yglesias » After Bush 2007

  • The party duopoly is really only a late 19th and early 20th century phenomenon.

    Matthew Yglesias » Why Two Parties? 2009

  • Anyway this convenient duopoly is the making of an inherently corrupt and duplicitous crooks called our politicians and elected officials.

    Comcast Is Now 3rd Largest U.S. Phone Company* 2009

  • Then, I begin to look outside my window, to merge with another provider, to lower my cost, my backhaul expense (via volume purchase agreements), base station expense (through standardization) and viola, a duopoly is born.

    How Neutral Should Wireless Networks Be? 2009

  • But the solution to a monopoly or duopoly is competition.

    Why I want the Evslins as neighbors « BuzzMachine 2006

  • And that's why it doesn't matter which of the duopoly is currently in charge.

    warnings 2005

  • The final word in this alphabet soup is that just two companies -- the new AT&T and Verizon, a "duopoly" -- would control almost all of the local residential wireline service, most of the long-distance telephone service, most of the cellphone and other wireless service, and most of the DSL wires -- as used by competitors to carry Internet phone calls and broadband TV -- across the USA.

    One Less Bell to Answer 2006

  • A duopoly is a situation where one person or other entity owns two TV stations in the same broadcasting market.

    Marvin Kitman: When Lap Dogs Roar 2008

  • A duopoly is the practice of owning two stations in the same market.

    Marvin Kitman: Hello, Sweetheart, Get Me Rewrite 2008

  • This is part of the genius of the Democrap-Republicrook two-party duopoly, which is no more than a plutocratic political partnership to maintain the corpocracy and prevent the non-wealthy 80 percent of the population from taking the power that is theirs.

    When Winning Is Losing - Democraps Are A Political Placebo 2006

Comments

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  • (noun) - (1) A condition in which there are only two suppliers of a certain commodity, service, etc. The domination of a particular market by two firms. Hence duopolist, one member of a duopoly; duopolize, to engross between two.

    --Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1893

    (2) Special coinage formed from duo, on the analogy of monopolize.

    --Robert Hunter's Encyclopædic Dictionary, 1895

    January 15, 2018