Pairing

pairing
    n 1: the act of pairing a male and female for reproductive
         purposes; "the casual couplings of adolescents"; "the
         mating of some species occurs only in the spring" [syn:
         {coupling}, {mating}, {pairing}, {conjugation}, {union},
         {sexual union}]
    2: the act of grouping things or people in pairs
    

Pair \Pair\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Paired}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Pairing}.]
   1. To be joined in pairs; to couple; to mate, as for
      breeding.
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   2. To suit; to fit, as a counterpart.
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            My heart was made to fit and pair with thine.
                                                  --Rowe.
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   3. Same as {To pair off}. See phrase below.
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   {To pair off}, to separate from a group in pairs or couples;
      specif. (Parliamentary Cant), to agree with one of the
      opposite party or opinion to abstain from voting on
      specified questions or issues. See {Pair}, n., 6.
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Pairing \Pair"ing\, n. [See {Pair}, v. i.]
   1. The act or process of uniting or arranging in pairs or
      couples.
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   2. See {To pair off}, under {Pair}, v. i.
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   {Pairing time}, the time when birds or other animals pair.
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67 Moby Thesaurus words for "pairing":
      Janus, agglomeration, agglutination, aggregation, ambiguity,
      ambivalence, articulation, biformity, bifurcation, bond,
      bracketing, clustering, combination, communication, concatenation,
      concourse, concurrence, confluence, congeries, conglomeration,
      conjugation, conjunction, connection, convergence, copulation,
      coupling, dichotomy, doubleness, doublethink, doubling, dualism,
      duality, duplexity, duplication, duplicity, equivocality,
      gathering, halving, hookup, intercommunication, intercourse,
      interlinking, irony, joinder, joining, jointure, junction,
      knotting, liaison, linkage, linking, marriage, meeting, merger,
      merging, polarity, splice, symbiosis, tie, tie-in, tie-up,
      twinning, two-facedness, twoness, unification, union, yoking