Pair (pr)

General & non-SICurrent unit

Two items.

1 pair = 2 pieces (exactly).

1 pair = 2 pieces

About the pair

Pair comes from Old French paire, which grew out of Latin paria, the neuter plural of par, meaning equal. German Paar and Dutch paar are relatives of the same word. The core idea is two matching things taken together, as in a pair of shoes or gloves.

English also uses pair for single objects built from two connected parts. Scissors, spectacles, trousers, and jeans are plural-only nouns, so a counting word is needed: you say a pair of scissors or several pairs of jeans. That makes the unit slightly slippery. Six pairs of socks is 12 socks, but six pairs of scissors is only six objects. The word has other senses too, such as two people in a relationship or two cards of equal rank in poker, but as a quantity of loose items it is always two.

Sources: Wiktionary: pair

Pair conversion chart

1 pair expressed in every other counting & quantity unit:

Unit1 pair
Pieces2
Dozens0.1666666667
Lakhs0.00002
Millions0.000002
Crores2×10⁻⁷
Billions (short Scale)2×10⁻⁹
Hundred0.02
Gross0.01388888889
Thousand0.002
Trillions (short Scale)2×10⁻¹²
Score0.1
Half Dozens0.3333333333
Quadrillions2×10⁻¹⁵
Reams0.004
Moles3.321078134×10⁻²⁴
Baker's Dozens0.1538461538
Small Gross0.01666666667
Great Gross0.001157407407
Myriads0.0002
Yi / Oku2×10⁻⁸
Arab (Indian)2×10⁻⁹
Kharab (Indian)2×10⁻¹¹
Billions (long Scale)2×10⁻¹²
Quires0.08

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