Word.ws English Dictionary

cockney

UK/ˈkɒk.ni/

cockney noun: a native or inhabitant of parts of the East End of London. Also the alternative form of Cockney.

Noun (1)

cockney (plural cockneys)

  1. A native or inhabitant of parts of the East End of London.
    • A cockney in a rural village was stared at as much as if he had entered a kraal of Hottentots.1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and...
  2. (obsolete) An effeminate person; a spoilt child.
    • A young heir, or cockney, that is his mother's darling[…]1592, Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless
    • This great lubber, the world, will prove a cockney.c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    Synonyms:
    nancy

Adjective capitalized: Cockney

Cockney (not comparable)

  1. (UK) From the East End of London, or London generally.
  2. Of or relating to people from this area or their speech style.

Noun (2) capitalized: Cockney

Cockney (plural Cockneys)

  1. (UK, slang) Any Londoner.
    • COCKNEY, a native of London. An ancient nickname implying effeminacy, used by the oldest English writers, and derived from the imaginary fool's paradise, or lubberland, Cockaygne.1859, J.C. Hotten, A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant and Vulgar Words, section 22
  2. (UK) A Londoner born within earshot of the city's Bow Bells, or (now generically) any working-class Londoner.
    • Londoners, and all within the sound of Bow Bell, are in reproach called Cockneys.1617, Fynes Moryson, An Itinerary
    • A Cockney or Cocksie, applied only to one born within the sound of Bow bell, that is in the City of London.1617, John Minsheu, Ductor in Linguas

Proper noun capitalized: Cockney

Cockney

  1. The dialect or accent of such Londoners.

Also used as

cockney is also the alternative form of Cockney.

Synonyms of cockney

Forms of cockney

Noun
pluralcockneys
alternative formCockney
pluralCockneys
Adjective
alternative formcockney

Origin of cockney

See Cockney.

First attested in Samuel Rowland's 1600 The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-Vaine as "a Bowe-bell Cockney", from Middle English cokenay (“a spoiled child; a milksop, an effeminate man”), used in the 16th c. by English country folk as a term of disparagement for city dwellers, of uncertain etymology. Possibly from Middle English cokeney (“a small, misshapen egg”), from coken (“cocks'(rooster’s)”) + ey (“egg”) or from Cockney and Cocknay, variants of Cockaigne, a mythical land of luxury (first attested in 1305) eventually used as a humorous epithet of London. Compare cocker (“to spoil a child”).

Words formed from cockney

Phrases with cockney

Words that rhyme with cockney

Questions about cockney

What does cockney mean?
Cockney means a native or inhabitant of parts of the East End of London.
What part of speech is cockney?
Cockney can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce cockney?
Cockney is pronounced /ˈkɒk.ni/ (UK).
What is the plural of cockney?
The plural of cockney is cockneys.

Words near cockney in the dictionary

  1. cockmunch
  2. cockmuncher
  3. cockmunchers
  4. cockmunches
  5. Cockneian
  6. cockney
  7. Cockney rhyming slang
  8. cockneycalities
  9. cockneycality
  10. Cockneydom
  11. Cockneyese

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cockney (page history and authors); Cockney (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cockney.wav, En-au-Cockney.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cockney.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cockney. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.