Nickname Meaning
/ˈnɪkneɪm/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA 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.
nounA familiar, shortened or diminutive name for a person or thing.
Sentence Examples
Chance is a nickname for Providence.
I don't know. Is there a nickname for Tokyo?
CEFR Practice Quiz
Everyone calls him 'Slim' because that is his ____ from his basketball days.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
His friends gave him the ____ 'Flash' because he was a very fast runner.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[…] Plato, who was named Aristocles after his grandfather, but received from his gymnastic master the nickname Πλάτων (from πλάτυς, broad), which practically superseded his real name."
— 1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xiii:
"He excelled with the arbalest steel crossbow, winning the nickname the Arbalestier and joined Bahriyya regiment, the crack soldiers who defeated the Crusaders and became known as the Turkish Lions and the Islamic Templars."
— 2011, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography – A History of the Middle East, page 329:
"Both literally and figuratively, the city has cleaned up without sacrificing the edge that inspired its locally embraced nickname of “Grit City.”"
— 2024 June 23, Corinne Whiting, “The dazzling sides of ‘Grit City’”, in CNN, archived from the original on 05 Oct 2024:
"He was nicknamed Chemical Ali by Iraqi Kurds, who also called him the Butcher of Kurdistan"
— 2010 January 25, “Iraq executes Chemical Ali”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 29 Apr 2025:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Everyone calls him 'Slim' because that is his ____ from his basketball days.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
His friends gave him the ____ 'Flash' because he was a very fast runner.