Alfred
name ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Alfred the Great, early king of England.
- 2 A male given name from Old English.
"Unfortunately for me my father had combined diplomacy with a study of Anglo-Saxon history and, of course with my mother's consent, he gave me the name of Alfred, one of his heroes ( I believe she had boggled at Aelfred ). This Christian name, for some inexplicable reason, had become corrupted in the eyes of our middle-class world; it belonged exclusively now to the working class and was usually abbreviated to Alf. Perhaps that was why Doctor Fisher, the inventor of Dentophil Bouquet, never called me anything but Jones, even after I married his daughter."
- 3 A surname originating as a patronymic. rare
- 4 A town, the county seat of York County, Maine, United States.
- 5 A town in Allegany County, New York, United States.
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- 6 A community in Alfred and Plantagenet township, Ontario, Canada.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Though Alfred is scrupulous in fulfilling his duties at work, he is less conscientious about his obligations at home."
Etymology
From Middle English Alfred, from Old English Ælfrǣd, from ælf (“elf”) + rǣd (“counsel”). Doublet of Alfredo and Avery. The modern pronunciation with /f/ is a spelling pronunciation; the name in Old English was pronounced with [v], as shown in its Middle English descendant Alured (in which u stands for modern v).
Related phrases
More for "alfred"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.