name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An anchovy or herring, especially pickled or dried. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   A sauce made from alecs; alec sauce. countable, uncountable

Proper Noun

1. 1
   A diminutive of the male given name Alexander, from Ancient Greek, of Scottish origin.
2. 2
   Initialism of American Legislative Exchange Council. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism

Example

More examples

"There was no one but Alec Fairbairn whose step she could have mistaken for mine."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Clipping of Alexander.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin alec (“herring”).

Related phrases

alec saucealec saucesmart alecsmart aleck

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.