What is "quadruplex"

Quadruplex \Quad"ru*plex\, a. [L., from quattuor four + plicare to fold.] Fourfold; folded or doubled twice.

Quadruplex system (Electric Telegraph), a system by which four messages, two in each direction, may be sent simultaneously over the wire.

1875, in reference to telegraph systems in which four messages can be wired simultaneously, from quadru- + plex. In classical Latin, quadruplex meant "fourfold, quadruple," as a noun, "a fourfold amount."

a. 1 Having four components. 2 Of or relating to a system in telegraphy by which four messages (two in each direction) can be sent on one wire simultaneously. 3 Of or relating to an early videotape format with four magnetic record/reproduce heads mounted on a headwheel spinning transversely across the tape. n. A quadruplex system

adj. having four units or components; "quadruple rhythm has four beats per measure"; "quadruplex wire" [syn: quadruple, quadruplicate, fourfold]

Quadruplex may refer to:

• Quadruplex telegraph, an improvement on the electrical telegraph patented in 1874 by Thomas Edison
• Two-inch quadruplex videotape, the first practical and commercially successful videotape format
• G-quadruplex, the four-stranded nucleic acid structure that is, among scientists, sometimes referred to as a quadruplex.

"Quadruplex" can also refer to a building split into four apartments, similar to a duplex