Word.ws English Dictionary

johnny-come-lately

UK/ˌdʒɒni.kʌmˈleɪtli//ˌdʒɑːni.kʌmˈleɪtli/

johnny-come-lately is the alternative form of Johnny-come-lately.

Noun capitalized: Johnny-come-lately

Johnny-come-lately (plural Johnny-come-latelies or Johnnies-come-lately)

  1. (also, attributive, idiomatic) A newcomer; a novice; an upstart.
    • She might take offense if some Johnny-come-lately thinks he can do a better job.
    • Morris now shared financial decisions with a woman, a female Johnny-come-lately. Imagine the eventuality of Morris's share of their fortune ever falling into such Johnny-come-lately hands. God forbid!1963 [1961], Fannie Hurst, God Must Be Sad, New York: Pocket Books, page 79

Synonyms of johnny-come-lately

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of johnny-come-lately

pluralJohnny-come-latelies
pluralJohnnies-come-lately
alternative form (rare)johnny-come-lately
alternative form (rare)Jonny-come-lately

Questions about johnny-come-lately

What does johnny-come-lately mean?
Johnny-come-lately means a newcomer; a novice; an upstart.
What is johnny-come-lately the alternative form of?
Johnny-come-lately is the alternative form of Johnny-come-lately.
What part of speech is johnny-come-lately?
Johnny-come-lately is a noun.
How do you pronounce johnny-come-lately?
Johnny-come-lately is pronounced /ˌdʒɒni.kʌmˈleɪtli/ (UK).
What is the plural of johnny-come-lately?
The plural of johnny-come-lately is Johnny-come-latelies.

Words near johnny-come-lately in the dictionary

  1. Johnny Rebs
  2. Johnny rook
  3. Johnny rooks
  4. Johnny Turk
  5. Johnny-come-latelies
  6. johnny-come-lately
  7. Johnny-jump-up
  8. Johnny-jump-ups
  9. Johnny-on-the-spot
  10. Johnny-on-the-spots
  11. Johnny-one-note

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: johnny-come-lately (page history and authors); Johnny-come-lately (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-Johnny-come-lately.ogg, en-au-Johnny-come-lately.ogg.

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