What does doppelganger mean?
A doppelganger is a person's double — someone who looks strikingly, sometimes eerily, similar to them. Borrowed from German, where it literally means 'double-goer', the word originally carried a supernatural weight: in European folklore, encountering one's own doppelganger was thought to foretell misfortune or death, and the figure became a staple of Gothic literature, appearing in works by writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Fyodor Dostoevsky. In contemporary English, however, the word has largely shed its ominous edge and is most often used lightheartedly to describe unrelated people who happen to look alike, whether friends spotting each other's twins on holiday or celebrities and their uncanny lookalikes. It functions as a countable noun with the plural 'doppelgangers'. Though sometimes printed with its original German umlaut as 'doppelgänger', the unaccented spelling is entirely standard, and the word remains a vivid, memorable way to describe a remarkable resemblance between two people.
nounA doppelgänger is an apparition or double of a living person, typically regarded as ominous. In modern usage it more commonly refers to any person who looks strikingly similar to someone else.
- A person who looks remarkably like someone else; a double or lookalike.
- (Literary/supernatural) A ghostly or spiritual apparition of a living person, traditionally considered an ill omen.
"She was startled to meet her exact doppelgänger at the conference — same face, different name."
"Fans flooded social media with photos claiming to have spotted the actor's doppelganger in the crowd."
"In the novel, the protagonist is haunted by a sinister doppelganger who seems determined to take over his life."
The standard plural simply adds -s; no German-style plural is used in English.
"The internet loves pairing celebrities with their unlikely doppelgangers from history paintings."
In German folklore, meeting your own doppelganger was said to be an omen of death — today, it just means you have a really good lookalike.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of doppelganger
Doppelganger comes directly from the German word Doppelgänger, a compound of doppel ('double') and Gänger ('goer'), literally meaning 'double-goer'. The term entered English in the mid-nineteenth century through translations of German Romantic and Gothic literature, retaining much of its supernatural aura from folklore traditions that viewed such doubles as omens. Its German roots connect it to other well-known borrowings from German such as poltergeist and zeitgeist, which likewise preserve their original compound structure in English.
How doppelganger is actually used
The word is often written with the German umlaut as 'doppelgänger', though 'doppelganger' without the umlaut is fully standard in English and far more common in everyday writing. The word carries a slightly uncanny or mysterious connotation even when used casually about lookalikes.
Easily confused with doppelganger
A 'double' is any general lookalike or duplicate, whereas 'doppelganger' carries a supernatural or eerie connotation of being another person's exact living counterpart.