mirror image

noun

1

a

: something that has its parts reversely arranged in comparison with another similar thing or that is reversed with reference to an intervening axis or plane

b

: the direct opposite

2

: image sense 4

Synonyms

• alter ego
• carbon
• carbon copy
• clone
• counterpart
• doppelgänger
• doppelganger
• double
• duplicate
• duplication
• facsimile
• fetch
• image
• likeness
• look-alike
• match
• picture
• replica
• ringer
• spit
• spitting image
• twin

Examples of mirror image in a Sentence

The left side of the building is a mirror image of the right.

looking at the idealistic intern, the elderly physician could not help but see the mirror image of himself 40 years earlier

Recent Examples on the Web

The way China surplus’s remains the mirror image of the U.S. deficit is just one of the many, complex forms in which the U.S. and Chinese economies continue to rely on one another, even as the ties become harder to see in topline economic data. —Brad Setser, Foreign Affairs, 4 June 2024

Unfortunately the 2022 and 2023 seasons were more or less a mirror image. —Craig Mish, Miami Herald, 4 June 2024

True to its title, its songs are full of dualities: angels and demons, grief and healing, dreams and realities, mirror images. —Jon Pareles, New York Times, 3 June 2024

The iconic Los Angeles strip serves as a mirror image to the utopia of Barbie Land. —Emily Zemler, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 July 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1885, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

mirror image

noun

: something that has its parts joined together in much the same way as those of something else except that each part of one thing is directly opposite to the corresponding part of the other thing and located on the opposite side of, the same distance away from, and facing in the same way toward or away from an axis or plane between the two things

the two sides of an animal with bilateral symmetry are mirror images of each other

Medical Definition

mirror image

noun

: something that has its parts reversely arranged in comparison with another similar thing or that is reversed with reference to an intervening axis or plane