twee·dle·dum and twee·dle·dee

(twēd′l-dŭm′ ən twēd′l-dē′)

Two people or two groups resembling each other so closely that they are practically indistinguishable.

[After Tweedledum and Tweedledee, , names of two proverbial rival fiddlers, of imitative origin.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

(ˌtwiːdəlˈdʌm; ˌtwiːdəlˈdiː)

any two persons or things that differ only slightly from each other; two of a kind

[C19: from the proverbial names of Handel and the musician Buononcini, who were supported by rival factions though it was thought by some that there was nothing to choose between them. The names were popularized by Lewis Carroll's use of them in Through the Looking Glass (1872)]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Twee•dle•dum and Twee•dle•dee

(ˌtwid lˈdʌm ən ˌtwid lˈdi)
n.pl.

two persons or things nominally different but practically the same.

[1715–25; humorous coinage, appar. first applied as nicknames to Italian composer Giovanni Bononcini (1670–1747) and German. French. Handel, with reference to their musical rivalry]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

Tweedledum and Tweedledee - any two people who are hard to tell apart

Tweedledee and Tweedledum

pair, brace - a set of two similar things considered as a unit

References in periodicals archive

The paper and wire figures also included the White Rabbit, Humpty Dumpty, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, The Walrus and the Carpenter, The Royal Gardeners and the tea party.

From the archive

One half of America's Tweedledum and Tweedledee showed once again why the eldest Trump siblings are known as the Brothers Dim.

Tweedle-dumb Eric is poll-axed by the sums

Alice comes across Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and they are both looking at a dead crow.

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Guided by the White Rabbit, Alice meets some astonishing characters, including the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, a studious caterpillar and Tweedledum and Tweedledee on her adventure.

Theatre set for its summer season

Guided by the White Rabbit, Alice meets some astonishing characters, including the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, a studious caterpillar and those mischievous twins, Tweedledum and Tweedledee. This captivating ballet, based on the much-loved Lewis Carroll book, will delight the whole family.

48 Your

From 2010's film Alice in Wonderland (bottom right) The inspiration for Tweedledum and Tweedledee, both played by Matt Lucas, was the twins in "The Shining," Burton told the LA.

Sketches from over the years

(Important caveat: I watched it, not by choice, in the dubbed-into-Greek version, meaning I missed SBC's Teutonic accent among other delights.) Then again, the film is conspicuously grotesque, from Humpty Dumpty in pieces -- a human-looking eye rolling around in a fragment of eggshell -- to the Red Queen's enormous head, made even more alarming by extreme close-ups; even Tweedledum and Tweedledee look more creepy than cute, Underland cousins of the inbred banjo boy from Deliverance .

Film review: Alice Through The Looking Glass* and Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising **

He said that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair are comparable to "tweedledum and tweedledee", showing little difference in the approach each takes towards the issue of abortion: arguing that Mr.

Catholic bishops respond to Justin Trudeau

Do they think we won't notice this Tweedledum and Tweedledee act of making two contradictory statements at once?

UK double standards are crude

Meet the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, Tweedledum and Tweedledee and a host of other interesting characters, including a croquet-playing Queen with a short temper.

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Perot's initial vertiginous rise to popularity as a candidate, due for the most part to how he presented to the public his anti-globalist position as exemplified by his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), shrank almost as fast as his dictatorial, biased and egocentric pre-election decisions cut down his popularity from being at par with the Tweedledum and Tweedledee candidates (Clinton and Bush Sr.) to half of that at election time.

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