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Definition

Someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another.

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Origins

See ringer (“substitute”) and ring the changes

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In Context

  • "He is a dead ringer for his grandfather at that age."
  • "In 1987, in “The Rules of Attraction,” he wrote about casual sex and obsessive drug use among bored students of a dead ringer for Bennington College, which Mr. Ellis attended."
  • "On our next date, she told me I could come back home if I wanted to. There was one condition, though: couples counseling."
  • "Twentysomething Alice works in publishing, so is instantly in awe of this old man offering her chocolate with a trembling hand. He is world-famous writer Ezra Blazer, a dead ringer for Philip Roth, with whom Halliday had a relationship in her 20s."
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Also Said As

  • spitting image
  • double
  • doppelganger
  • lookalike