counterpart

American  

[kaun-ter-pahrt] / ˈkaʊn tərˌpɑrt /

noun

• counterparts
  plural

1. 

   a person or thing closely resembling another, especially in function.

   Our president is the counterpart of your prime minister.

2. a copy; duplicate.

3. Law. a duplicate or copy of an indenture.

4. one of two parts that fit, complete, or complement one another.

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counterpart British  

/ ˈkaʊntəˌpɑːt /

noun

1. a person or thing identical to or closely resembling another

2. one of two parts that complement or correspond to each other

3. a person acting opposite another in a play

4. a duplicate, esp of a legal document; copy

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• counterparts
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of counterpart

late Middle English word dating back to 1425–75; see origin at counter-, part

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Explanation

If you leap tall buildings in a single bound for the Des Moines branch of your corporation, then your Metropolis counterpart might be Superman. That means you and Superman do similar jobs, but in different locations. The noun counterpart comes from the French word countre part, meaning “duplicate of a legal document.” In legal circles counterpart still means "a duplicate document," but today it is more likely to describe people. Counterparts aren't duplicates, of course, but they have similar skills and responsibilities. If you play soccer, your counterpart is the player on the other team who plays the same position.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

counterpart counterparts

But speaking to reporters as he left the White House on Friday, the US president said he had a good relationship with his Ukrainian counterpart.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

Quantum mechanics, however, reveals that particles can behave in ways that have no straightforward counterpart in our ordinary experience.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026

During the heat of their federal antitrust trial in 2024, Albertsons’ then-CEO Vivek Sankaran called his counterpart at Kroger with a last-ditch request to help ease regulators’ concerns, according to the filing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

Six months ago, a sustained push above 5% for the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield and its 30-year counterpart was viewed as unlikely.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

One might expect a presence to rival the Godslayer’s—a dark counterpart to his light, as two quell kings faced off across a game board.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

Tech firms -- which rely on borrowing to fund their huge AI investments -- led the losses Thursday, tracking their counterparts in New York.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

Samples from Chang'e-6 contain extremely low concentrations of rare earth elements and have lower thorium-to-samarium ratios, expressed as Th/Sm, than their Apollo counterparts.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026

The Chinese automakers helped make Europe’s biggest car show much more buzzy than its U.S. counterparts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

At the Pyry Conference near Warsaw in 1939, Polish cryptologists invited French and British counterparts, including Alastair Denniston and Dilly Knox, to share their pioneering success in breaking the German Enigma machine cipher.

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026

In the hysteria that followed over Soviet scientists’ apparent outdistancing their American counterparts, a new group of technical advisors was brought into the White House.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

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