When two or more people or nations have equal exchanges of goods or services, they are enjoying reciprocity, a situation where each enjoys an equal benefit from the relationship.
- Pronunciation: / ,rɛsɪ'prɑsəti/
- English description: a relation of mutual dependence or action or influence
- Synonyms: reciprocality
- Chinese Translation: 互惠(hu4 hui4)
- Spanish Translation: la reciprocidad
- ORIGIN: The background of the word reciprocity can be traced to the Latin reciprocus which means, logically enough, "moving back and forth." This is an appropriate meaning for a word that describes a system that moves goods and favors back and forth between participants, sort of a business version of the Golden Rule or, in a different light, the expression "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours."
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
- He emphasized that there should be reciprocity because “U.S. citizens have had visa-free travel to Poland for years now,” he said.
- Native communities use reciprocity, respect, and relationships as benchmarks.
*New word description, story and part of "EXAMPLE SENTENCE" are cited in Vocabulary
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