Tweedledee and Tweedledum
- noun
- /ˈtwidəlˌdi ˈænd ˈtwidəlˌdʌm/
:
Tweedledum y Tweedledee
- My twin nephews are Tweedledee and Tweedledum; even their parents can barely tell them apart.
Examples
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The two candidates were like Tweedledee and Tweedledum, offering almost identical policies.
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In their matching outfits, the sisters resembled Tweedledee and Tweedledum at the party.
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The two brothers looked like Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
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Everyone says they act like Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
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At the fancy dress party, the twins looked just like Tweedledee and Tweedledum in their identical costumes.
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In their matching blue jackets, the two boys were like Tweedledee and Tweedledum, making it hard to tell them apart.
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The friends were always together, acting as if they were Tweedledee and Tweedledum with their similar behaviors.
Synonyms
57
5.6
A person who is very like another in look or actions
14
3.9
A person who is very similar in appearance to another person, often a famous person
6
7.8
A person who looks almost exactly like someone else but is not related
Two people who look very alike and are hard to tell apart
Antonyms
How Similar
889
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
Tweedledee + and + Tweedledum
The phrase consists of two proper names joined by 'and', and the literal meanings of the constituents give no cue to the idiomatic sense of ‘two very similar people’. This is a conventional literary/cultural reference (from nursery rhyme/Lewis Carroll) that learners must have encountered to understand, so it is opaque to a B1 learner who only knows the individual words.
Etymology
Tweedledee and Tweedledum comes from Lewis Carroll's story, where two nearly identical, round characters stand side by side and almost mirror each other. That clear picture of two matching people is why the phrase means 'very similar' or 'hard to tell apart'.