noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A name, such as of a plant or animal, that occurs in (especially technical) literature but does not have much currency in the spoken language.
2. 2
   In Imperial China, a name given to a student on starting school. historical

Etymology

From book + name.

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