Word.ws English Dictionary

Godwin

Godwin proper noun: a surname originating as a patronymic based on a medieval given name.

Proper noun

Godwin

  1. A surname originating as a patronymic based on a medieval given name.
  2. (rare) A male given name.
  3. A town in Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States, named after pioneer settler.

Noun

Godwin (plural Godwins)

  1. (informal) An inappropriate mention of the Nazis or Adolf Hitler in a discussion.
    • Presumably, because the institute producing the book promotes the idea that evolution isn't science, but an ideology, one that their fellows have pulled a Godwin on and attempted to tie to Nazism.2008 September 25, John Timmer, “A biologist reviews an evolution textbook from the ID camp”, in ArsTechnica

Forms of Godwin

pluralGodwins

Origin of Godwin

From Old English Godwine (“God's friend”). The component -win is from Old English wine (“friend”). The second meaning is named after Michael Wayne Godwin (born 1956), American attorney and author.

Words formed from Godwin

Questions about Godwin

What does Godwin mean?
Godwin means a surname originating as a patronymic based on a medieval given name.
What part of speech is Godwin?
Godwin can be a proper noun or a noun.

Words near Godwin in the dictionary

  1. Godward
  2. godwards
  3. Godwari
  4. godwilling
  5. Godwillings
  6. Godwin
  7. Godwin's law
  8. Godwinian
  9. godwink
  10. godwinks
  11. Godwins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Godwin (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:

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