Meanings
alternative nerddom
- colloquialrareuncountableThe attitudes and behaviours of a nerd; nerdiness.
The self-described "exemplar of nerdom" feels right at home with Carl Sagan's speculative science-fiction [title]
1997 August, Douglas Eby, “James Woods: The self-described "exemplar of nerdom" feels right at home with Carl Sagan's speculative science-fiction”, in Cinefantastique, volume 29, number 2, Forest Park, IL: Frederick S. Clarke, →ISSN, page 282 more examples
When she [Valerie Mahaffey] was 17 she fell in love with a schoolmate named Ben: 'Together, we pulled each other out of nerddom,' she said.
1983 April 1, Nan Robertson, “Tigers or ‘top girls,’ Valerie Mahaffey adjusts”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 20 Dec 2016Even movies that first appear to add a promising element of nerdom always end up doing something dumb, like tarnishing a tense computer-based drama with idiotic and unusable (but oh so very sexy) 3D interfaces.
2008 October, Will Smith, “Why Does Hollywood Give Nerds a Bad Rap?”, in Maximum PC, San Francisco, Calif.: Future US, →ISSN, page 9 - colloquialrareuncountableNerds considered as a group.
I still chuckle at some of [the] jokes that we targeted to very narrow slices of nerdom.
2009, Mark Dalrymple, “Foreword”, in Jack Nutting; Dave Mark; Jeff LaMarche, Learn Cocoa on the Mac (Books for Professionals by Professionals), [New York, N.Y.]: Apress, page xi
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
From nerd + -dom; attested in the USA from 1983. Note that -dom is used both in the sense of “domain” (nerds, as a group) and in the sense of “characteristics” (being a nerd, nerdiness).
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
nerdom. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nerdom
“nerdom.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nerdom. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “nerdom,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nerdom.
Source: nerdom on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.