Definition of nickname
1 : a usually descriptive name given instead of or in addition to the one belonging to a person, place, or thing
2 : a familiar form of a proper name (as of a person or a city)
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Examples of nickname in a Sentence
His mother gave him the nickname “Winky” when he was a baby.
Earvin “Magic” Johnson got his nickname from the way he handled a basketball.
Recent Examples of nickname from the Web
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Everybody seemed to have a nickname: Drain Pipe, Round Head, Big Kid.
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Since Wongchenko was already a nickname among friends, Lisa, a lawyer, and Matt, a scientist, took it as a way to honor both of their families.
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Aguilar said, using a nickname applied to people enrolled in the DACA program.
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Fat Albert was added to the Blue Angels in 1970 and got its nickname because of the popular Bill Cosby cartoon of the same name long before body shaming was frowned upon.
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Glankler has a nickname for Mo after all the elderly canine went through: The Legend.
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The fish, members of the grunt family, earned the nickname from the scarlet skin inside their mouths.
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Taco Charlton spent most of his life battling and explaining his nickname.
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Pollard was also prone to giving them nicknames of her own such as Token, Whiteboy — my personal favorite — Rico, and Punk, who is now more commonly known as David Otunga, the fiancee of Jennifer Hudson.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'nickname.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of nickname
Middle English nekename additional name, alteration (resulting from misdivision of an ekename) of ekename, from eke eke, also + name name
nickname
Definition of nickname
nicknamer
nounRecent Examples of nickname from the Web
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Now scientists have finally identified the species, Razanandrongobe sakalavae (nicknamed Razana), as an enormous crocodile ancestor.
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He was nicknamed after Yogi Bear's sidekick Boo Boo.
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But Spithill, who is not nicknamed Pitbull for nothing, kept scrapping and tacking and talking a good game, and he and his crewmates were finally rewarded with their first victory in this otherwise lopsided America’s Cup match.
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By comparison, the H-4 flying boat — nicknamed Spruce Goose and built by Howard Hughes in the 1940s — has a 320-foot (97.5-meter) wingspan and is just under 219 feet (67 meters) long.
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By comparison, the H-4 flying boat — nicknamed Spruce Goose and built by Howard Hughes in the 1940s — has a 320-foot (97.5-meter) wingspan and is just under 219 feet (67 meters) long.
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The system was called the Capital City Street Railway and nicknamed Lightning Route.
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The population of Clemson, S.C., is just less than 14,000, which almost 10,000 fewer than Starkville, home of Mississippi State and jokingly nicknamed Starkvegas.
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JPMorgan was fined more than $1 billion by U.S. and U.K. regulators in 2013 after trader Bruno Iksil, nicknamed the London Whale for his large bets, incurred $6.2 billion in losses.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'nickname.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
First Known Use of nickname
1536
NICKNAME Defined for English Language Learners
nickname
playDefinition of nickname for English Language Learners
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: a name (such as “Moose” or “Lady Bird”) that is different from your real name but is what your family, friends, etc., call you when they are talking to you or about you
nickname
Definition of nickname for English Language Learners
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: to give (someone) a name that is not that person's real name : to give a nickname to (someone)
NICKNAME Defined for Kids
Definition of nickname for Students
1 : a usually descriptive name used in addition to a person's given name My brother had the nickname “Nosy.”
2 : a familiar form of a proper name “Bill” and “Willie” are nicknames for “William.”
History for nickname
In the Middle Ages there was an English word ekename that meant “an extra name.” It was made of a word eke that meant “extra part” added to the word name. It started with a vowel, so an was used with this word instead of a. When an ekename was said fast, it sounded a bit like a nekename. As a result, some people thought the word started with n and began to pronounce it nekename. They did not know they were taking n away from an, adding it to ekename, and so making a new word. From this new word came the word nickname that we use now.
Definition of nickname for Students
nicknamed
;nicknaming
: to give a usually descriptive name to that is additional to a given name
Learn More about nickname
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See words that rhyme with nickname Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for nickname Spanish Central: Translation of nickname Nglish: Translation of nickname for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of nickname for Arabic speakers
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