pseudonym

plural pseudonyms

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.

   3 more examples

   I doubt, indeed, whether I should not abandon the struggle altogether—leave this sad world of ordinary life for which I am so ill fitted, abandon the name of Cummins for some professional pseudonym, complete my self-effacement, and—a thing of tricks and tatters, of posing and pretence—go upon the stage.

   c. 1911, H. G. Wells, The Obliterated Man

   The best example of its literary use so far are the German novel The Golem, by Gustav Meyrink, and the drama The Dybbuk, by the jewish writer using the pseudonym "Ansky".

   1928, H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature

   “I, at first, tried to say, ‘Well, maybe it was an accident. Maybe it got stuck in a printer.’ That was my first thought,” Parker, who requested to go by a pseudonym due to fear of retaliation, tells Them.

   2025 March 3, Nico Lang, ““Simply Trying to Exist”: How Trans Americans Are Navigating the Confusion and Chaos of Trump’s Passport Policy”, in Them, archived from the original on 04 Apr 2025

   Synonyms: anonym, byname, to-name · Antonyms: autonym, orthonym, alethonym

1. obsoletePseudonymous (who uses a pseudonym).

   Of these enthusiasts, a book (“Subterranean Russia”) published by a pseudonym author, M. Stepnjak, but the contents of which are in no small measure authenticated by a well-known Russian exile, says: [...]

   1882, Contemporary Review, page 625

   2 more examples

   Thus, contrary to bibliographical rule, we have preferred to record the works of pseudonym authors—such as Eliot, Oliver Optic, etc.—under the adopted name which the author chooses to retain on the title-page.

   1870, The American Catalogue of Books, page 29

   The pseudonym “author of Jason with the golden fleece,” as he styles himself after his first book, has assumed the task of portraying the wrongs of his own time, and in this work he has had marked success in his “Nutidsbilleder,” which are written with spirit and ability.

   1883, History of Literature of the Scandinavian North, page 284