Siamese twin

noun

1. (not in technical use) conjoined twin.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Siamese twin¹

First recorded in 1820–30; named after congenitally united twins, Chang and Eng (1811–74), born in Siam, who were joined to each other at the chest

Example Sentences

"Trieste and Hamburg are Siamese twins. They are two important ports, both located on strategic corridors connecting the cold seas to the Mediterranean," he told Reuters.

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“My personal and my sociological lives are joined at the hip, heart and head, like Siamese twins,” she wrote in an autobiographical essay published in the 1996 collection “Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed.”

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She argues that strange facts came first and plain facts came later; first, there were Siamese twins, hermaphrodites, furry babies and virgin births, then there was Boyle’s air pump.

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A newswoman and a private eye probe a murder confused by separated Siamese twins.

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Class and Race: the South’s—America’s—Siamese twins.

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Related Words

• fraternal twin 
• identical twin