doppelgänger
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of doppelgänger
First recorded in 1850–55; from German: literally, “double-walker,” from doppel double ( def. ) + Gänger “walker” (from Gang “motion, way” + -er -er 1 ( def. ); cf. gang 1 ( def. ))
Explanation
Someone who looks spookily like you, but isn't a twin, is a doppelganger. Originally, this was a type of ghost. The word doppelganger is German and literally means double walker — as in a ghost or shadow of yourself. An easy way to remember it is that doppelganger sounds like double, as in "That movie star is my double. We look so much alike." These days, most people don't refer to the ghost meaning when talking about doppelgangers: they just mean someone who looks a lot like you or could be your twin. Still, that is pretty spooky.
Vocabulary lists containing doppelganger
The Fault in Our Stars
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This Week in Pop Culture : January 5 - 11, 2019
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The Shining
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Replacing authentic leadership with a digital doppelgänger isn’t innovation — it’s a high-tech retreat from accountability.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
As an adult I acquired a different doppelgänger, not a famous actor but a fellow opinion journalist whom I happened to befriend after moving to New York in the mid-1990s.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 23, 2025
As the demands of these two facets of his life become overwhelming, he decides to hire a doppelgänger to take over his professional commitments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2025
The opening track, “Gemini,” is a vivid but fretful tale of modern malaise and a doppelgänger who gives Heynderickx refreshing perspective.
From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 2024
When he entered a tournament, dressed in a khaki shirt and pants and dark tie and displaying that mustache, it was as if a doppelgänger of Der Fuehrer had been incarnated.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
There are plenty of big-name doppelgängers preparing for judgment in the video too, but it was Lil Nas X who got the brunt of brutal discernment in real life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2024
Heather Tal Murphy runs down four concrete ways A.I. doppelgängers of real people are already being used on screen.
From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2023
Others praise her performance in the film and poke fun at her many doppelgängers.
From Salon ● Feb. 1, 2023
Naturally, the celebrity doppelgängers have also made waves on TikTok, where some users have uploaded videos morphing their faces together and made comments about their similar physical features, from their bone structure to their eyebrows.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2022
The same players, or their doppelgängers; the same pictured nymphs smiling on the ornate walls.
From The Princess Passes by Williamson, A. M. (Alice Muriel)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
