nickname
Plural: nicknames
Noun
- a familiar name for a person (often a shortened version of a person's given name)
- "Joe's mother would not use his nickname and always called him Joseph"
- "Henry's nickname was Slim"
- a descriptive name for a place or thing
- "the nickname for the U.S. Constitution is `Old Ironsides'"
- 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.
- A familiar, shortened or diminutive name for a person or thing.
Verb
Verb Forms: nicknamed, nicknaming, nicknames
- To give a familiar or descriptive name to someone or something.
- give a nickname to
- To give a nickname to (a person or thing).
Examples
- "The Big Apple" is a common nickname for New York City.
- Gerald, nicknamed "Jerry", was usually a very cheerful person.
- My name is Jonathan, but I go by my nickname, Johnny.
- She decided to nickname her blank tile ’the wildcard’ in Words With Friends.
Origin / Etymology
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.
Scrabble Score: 16
nickname: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordnickname: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
nickname: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary