Tweedle-dum
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 One of a pair (the other of the pair being Tweedle-dee) of nominally different (often: but practically identical) things.
"Some ſay, compar’d to Bononcini, / That Mynheer Handel’s but a Ninny; / Others aver, that he to Handel / Is ſcarcely fit to hold a Candle: / Strange all this Difference ſhould be, / ’Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee!"
- 1 A fictional little fat man who is the twin brother of Tweedle-dee and appears in multiple artistic works, including certain nursery rhymes and Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.
Example
More examples"Some ſay, compar’d to Bononcini, / That Mynheer Handel’s but a Ninny; / Others aver, that he to Handel / Is ſcarcely fit to hold a Candle: / Strange all this Difference ſhould be, / ’Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee!"
Etymology
The names "Tweedledum" and "Tweedledee" first appeared in print in one of John Byrom's epigrams, which satirised the disagreements between Handel and Bononcini. They were made popular by Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.