# dead ringer

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/dead-ringer
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

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

## Examples

- That man is a dead ringer for my brother.
- When she walked into the party, everyone stared because she was a dead ringer for a famous movie star.
- I almost said hello to a stranger at the airport because he was a dead ringer for my old boss, right down to the glasses and the suit.
- Although they were not related, the young actor was such a dead ringer for the historical figure that the director cast him immediately.

## Origin

The expression is a late 19th-century compound of dead, used here to signify absolute precision, and ringer. The latter term referred to a horse of superior quality substituted surreptitiously for a slower one in a race to deceive bookmakers. It is related to the practice of ringing the changes, an 18th-century method of substituting counterfeit coins for genuine ones during a transaction. The term had settled into the sporting lexicon by the 1880s to denote any person or object providing an exact, and often fraudulent, resemblance to another.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.