pairing

CIDE DICTIONARY

pairing, n. [See Pair, v. i.].

•  The act or process of uniting or arranging in pairs or couples.  [1913 Webster]
•  See To pair off, under Pair, v. i.  [1913 Webster]

Pairing time, the time when birds or other animals pair.

THESAURUS

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