Exonym

//ˈɛksənɪm// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An external name for a place, people or a language used by outgroup members (such as foreigners) instead of ingroup members (such as native-language speakers).

    "Recognizing that measures such as the categorization of exonym use, the publication of pronunciation guides for endonyms, and the formulation of guidelines ensuring a politically sensitive use of exonyms would help in the reduction of the number of exonyms, […]"

Synonyms

All synonyms
xenonymxenonym

Example

More examples

"Endonym (also autonym "self name") is a Greek/English word for a name that a people or country calls themselves or their language. Exonym (also xenonym "foreign name") is a Greek/English word for the opposite, or what a stranger would call someone else's country, people or language. Endonym means "inside name"; while exonym means "outside name"."

Etymology

From exo- (“outside”) + -onym (“name”).

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