• Patterns, historically often called peak patterns or splitting patterns (see definition of peak below), have been designated as singlets, doublets, triplets, quartets, etc. as well as doublets of doublets, doublet of triplets, etc. Despite their valid theoretical foundation (e.g., the n+1 rule for 1 H coupling patterns) and simplicity, the unthinking use of multiplicity terms holds a significant risk of oversimplification or even incorrectness due to unmet assumptions, as becomes evident from the present study.