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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

nickname.

A familiar, invented name for a person or thing used instead of the actual name of the person or thing, often based on some noteworthy characteristic.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈnɪkneɪm/
  1. A familiar, invented name for a person or thing used instead of the actual name of the person or thing, often based on some noteworthy characteristic.

    "The Big Apple" is a common nickname for New York City.
  2. A familiar, shortened or diminutive name for a person or thing.

    My name is Jonathan, but I go by my nickname, Johnny.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English neke name, alteration (due to a rebracketing of an ekename as a nekename) of earlier ekename (“nickname”), from eke (“additional”) + name. Compare Old Norse aukanafn, auknafn, auknefni, Faroese eyknevni, Danish øgenavn, Norwegian Nynorsk aukenamn, Swedish öknamn, and German Low German Ökelname. For other similar cases of incorrect division, see also apron, daffodil, newt, orange, umpire.

verb/ˈnɪkneɪm/
  1. To give a nickname to (a person or thing).

    transitive
    Gerald, nicknamed "Jerry", was usually a very cheerful person.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English neke name, alteration (due to a rebracketing of an ekename as a nekename) of earlier ekename (“nickname”), from eke (“additional”) + name. Compare Old Norse aukanafn, auknafn, auknefni, Faroese eyknevni, Danish øgenavn, Norwegian Nynorsk aukenamn, Swedish öknamn, and German Low German Ökelname. For other similar cases of incorrect division, see also apron, daffodil, newt, orange, umpire.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.