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I've seen this a couple of times in newspapers. For example:

....は山口、広島両県の....

I can't find it in any dictionary. My gut feeling is that it indicates a sort of union between the two prefectures, in this case between Yamaguchi and Hiroshima. Can someone confirm or clarify this?

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両~ = both, no? Like... 両足=both legs, 両極=both poles, 両端=both ends, 両サイド=both sides...（↓笑！わたしも今気づいた） – Chocolate May 13 '12 at 13:18
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Wouldn't this just mean "both prefectures"? Like 両手 - both hands. (edit: I see Chocolate got there 6 seconds before me :D) – ジョン May 13 '12 at 13:18
Can someone explain why this was down-voted? Is it off-topic? – silvermaple May 26 '12 at 15:20

1 Answer

up vote 6 down vote accepted

両〜 is a prefix meaning "both". In this case "both prefectures".

Here are some other examples of its usage, from EDICT via jisho.org.

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Oh, yeah that makes a lot of sense...something about it just threw me off. I think having the two names first, I don't know. Thanks though :) – silvermaple May 13 '12 at 13:30

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