- reciprocal
- reciprocal 1 Reciprocal, mutual, common mean shared, experienced, or shown by each of the persons or things concerned.Reciprocal has for its distinctive implication the return in due measure by each of two sides of whatever is offered, given, or manifested by the other. Usually therefore it implies not only a quid pro quo but an equivalence in value, though not necessarily in kind, on each side (as of love, hate, understanding, courtesies, concessions, or duties){
the connection between law and political theory has not been one-sided; it has been completely reciprocal— Cairns
}{the reciprocal feelings of man and woman towards each other— T. S. Eliot
}Mutual is often used in place of reciprocal when the idea of return or interchange is suggested and that of sharing equally or jointly is stressed{mutual affection
}{mutual enthusiasm
}But mutual is applicable, as reciprocal is not, to two persons who entertain reciprocal feelings toward each other{mutual friends
}{mutual foes
}When there is little or no suggestion of a reciprocal relation (as between thoughts or feelings) and the emphasis is upon the fact that the two persons or things involved entertain the same feelings towards each other, perform the same actions, or suffer the same results, mutual is more appropriate than reciprocal{their eyes held and the air was eloquent of mutual suspicion— Hervey
}{even Shelley sometimes mingles poetry and propaganda to their mutual disaster— Lowes
}Both reciprocal and mutual are sometimes used when more than two persons, classes, or things are involved{mutual recriminations, long suppressed, broke out between the Fuehrer's captains— Shirer
}but when there is no implication of reciprocity, common is the more usual term; thus, one says "we (two, three, or more persons) are mutual friends," meaning that all are friends each of the other but "they have common friends," meaning that each has friends who also are friends of the others; the members of a group may have a common purpose. Common (see also COMMON 3 ; UNIVERSAL 2) implies joint participation or possession by two or more persons, and differs from mutual in not being restricted as to the number involved and in not carrying a suggestion of a reciprocal relation or of an equivalence of feeling, performance, or effort{make common cause against an enemy
}{their common fund of intellectual interests and curiosities made their talks exhilarating— Wharton
}{death and other incidents of our common fate— Cohen
}Analogous words: shared, participated, partaken (see SHARE): interchanged, exchanged (see EXCHANGE): balancing, com-pensating, counterpoising (see COMPENSATE)2 Reciprocal, corresponding, correlative, complementary, complemental, convertible are not close synonyms, although in some instances they are interchangeable, and all are comparable in meaning like, equivalent, or similarly related to each other (as in kind, quality, or value).Reciprocal (see also RECIPROCAL 1) implies that the likeness or equivalence of two things or of one thing to another rests on the fact of their being returns or its being a return in kind, value, or quality for what one side has given to the other{reciprocal courtesies
}{a treaty providing for reciprocal trade privileges
}{each flexor muscle which contracts has its reciprocal extensor muscle which operates in the reverse direction— Wier
}{public and private systems engage in reciprocal services— Lepawsky
}Corresponding implies a likeness or equivalence pro-ceeding from the fact that one answers to the other or conforms to it so that they are fitted to each other, or proportionate to or commensurate with each other, or in perfect accord with each other{corresponding sides of similar triangles are in proportion— G. F. Wilder
}{the light, with its corresponding shadow— Kitson
}{all rights carry with them corresponding responsibilities— Paepke
}Correlative implies a close relationship rather than a likeness and is applicable chiefly to two things, or one of two things, which cannot exist independently of each other either because one logically implies the other{husband and wife, father and child, are correlative terms
}or one cannot exist without the other{the "right" of the worker to demand work on reasonable terms, and the correlative obligation of the organized community to provide it— Hobson
}In more casual use correlative may imply nothing more than so close a correspondence or relation between two or sometimes more things that they come naturally, necessarily, or logically together{two correlative rules: first, that no one shall be allowed to undertake important work without having acquired the necessary skill; secondly, that this skill shall be taught to the ablest of those who desire it— Russell
}{disorder in any one of nature's correlative hierarchies—physical, political, psychological—automatically produces disorder in the others— Bingham
}Complementary also implies a close relationship rather than a likeness; the term carries a strong suggestion that one thing is so necessary to another or to others that without it an entire or perfect whole is not possible{it is important to recognize that these two uses of the surplus are complementary and not competitive— Hobson
}{the corpuscular and undulatory concepts of light must be regarded as complementary rather than antithetical— Jeans
}Complemental has essentially the same meaning, differing only in applying usually to a quantitative completing{revelation is regarded by many theologians as complemental to reason
}Convertible implies so strong a likeness that the things, though not identical, are virtually interchangeable{the law, and the opinion of the judge, are not always convertible terms, or one and the same thing— Blackstone
}{truth and beauty have never been recognized as identical, and ... to employ their names as convertible terms would lead to no end of confusion— Quiller-Couch
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
