Pseudonym

//ˈsu.də.nɪm// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A fictitious name (more literally, a false name), as those used by writers and movie stars.

    "The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll."

  2. 2
    a fictitious name used when the person performs a particular social role wordnet

Example

More examples

"I always found weird to participate in a community under a pseudonym and sign messages with another name."

Etymology

Back-formation from pseudonymous, from French pseudonyme (“pseudonymous”, adjective), from Ancient Greek ψευδώνυμος (pseudṓnumos), from ψευδής (pseudḗs, “false”) and ὄνυμα (ónuma), a dialectal form of ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”). By surface analysis, pseudo- + -onym.

Related phrases

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