doubleheader
Americannoun
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Sports.
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two games, as of baseball, between the same teams on the same day in immediate succession.
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two games, as of basketball, between two different pairs of teams on the same day in immediate succession.
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two performances or two events occurring one after the other or within a short time of each other.
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a railroad train pulled by two locomotives.
Etymology
Origin of doubleheader
An Americanism dating back to 1895–1900; double + head + -er 1
Explanation
When two baseball games are played in a row, one right after the other, that's a doubleheader. Last week's game was called off because of rain, so today they're playing a doubleheader. You can use this term for any sporting events, but it originated with baseball. It was once common for a few baseball doubleheaders to be scheduled throughout the season, but today this generally happens only when a previous game had to be postponed. Strictly speaking, doubleheaders occur in succession, one immediately following the other, but the term is often used for any two games played in one day by a single team.
Vocabulary lists containing doubleheader
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball
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A High Five for Glenn Burke
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Boy21
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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.
In 1975 he bounced the Baltimore Orioles manager from both games of a doubleheader, the second time coming before the game started.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 26, 2026
It’s Koufax running down to the bullpen in the second game of a doubleheader in Philadelphia that the Dodgers had to win in order to make it to the World Series and saying, “I’m available.”
From Salon • Nov. 3, 2025
She called the bases in the doubleheader before moving behind the plate on Sunday, placing her in the brightest spotlight for an umpire.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 10, 2025
She will work the bases during Saturday’s doubleheader between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves at Truist Park in Atlanta, then she will take her turn behind the plate in Sunday’s series finale.
From Salon • Aug. 9, 2025
The second game of the year is the annual boy-girl doubleheader against Pennsville, our archrivals in basketball and by far our best competition for the conference championship.
From "Boy21" by Matthew Quick
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.
