sidekick
Americannoun
-
a close friend.
-
a confederate or assistant.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sidekick
Explanation
A sidekick is a buddy who comes with you on your adventures. If you’re a superhero, your sidekick helps you fight crime. Electra Woman’s sidekick was the teenage Dyna Girl, and in the ‘70s they defeated villains on TV. A sidekick might be a work assistant, a best friend, or even a devoted dog that follows you to school every day. Sometimes this word signifies an imbalance of power, though; if you say, “This is my sidekick, Sarah," it implies that Sarah has less authority than you do. The origin of this word is unknown, but we do know that it appeared after the terms side-pal and side-partner fell out of fashion.
Vocabulary lists containing sidekick
Superhero Lexicon
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New Kid
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Comic Book Day
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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.
And so it will, for at least several more years, Austin Reaves now occupying a Laker leading sidekick role made famous during their championship years by the likes of Anthony Davis and Pau Gasol.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 24, 2026
“The Mandalorian,” in which Pedro Pascal plays a bounty hunter who works with a sidekick that fans nicknamed “Baby Yoda,” has been the most successful and a big hit in consumer-product sales.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 24, 2026
And for a time he becomes the sidekick of an out-of-work guerrilla in the Central African Republic.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2026
Meanwhile, he and others relegated Huerta to sidekick status, both in the trenches and in the public — and the image makers followed his lead.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 19, 2026
Juan Perón, who later became Evita’s husband and the dictator of Argentina, studied Hitler and his Italian sidekick, Mussolini, as role models.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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.
