Word.ws English Dictionary

Moriarty

/ˈmɔːɹiɑː(ɹ)ti/

Moriarty proper noun: a surname from Irish.

Proper noun

Moriarty

  1. A surname from Irish.
  2. A city in Torrance County, New Mexico, United States.
  3. A locality in Latrobe council area, Tasmania, Australia.

Noun

Moriarty (plural Moriartys)

  1. An archenemy or nemesis, especially a highly intelligent one.
    • The town of Twin Peaks, suddenly not energised by its mammary setting, is narrated as a large chess board on which the action is completely defined by the competing logic of Dale Cooper and his Moriarty-like nemesis, Windom Earle.1997, Martha Nochimson, The passion of David Lynch: wild at heart in Hollywood

Forms of Moriarty

pluralMoriartys
alternative formDr. Moriarty
alternative formProfessor Moriarty

Origin of Moriarty

From Irish Ó Muircheartaigh (“descendant of Muircheartach”), a name from muir (“sea”) + ceardaí (“craftsman”).

In reference to Professor James Moriarty, fictional archenemy and nemesis of Sherlock Holmes

Phrases with Moriarty

Questions about Moriarty

What does Moriarty mean?
Moriarty means a surname from Irish.
What part of speech is Moriarty?
Moriarty can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Moriarty?
Moriarty is pronounced /ˈmɔːɹiɑː(ɹ)ti/.

Words near Moriarty in the dictionary

  1. Moriah
  2. Morian
  3. Morians
  4. Moriarity
  5. Moriaritys
  6. Moriarty
  7. moribana
  8. moribund
  9. moribundancy
  10. moribundities
  11. moribundity

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Moriarty (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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Cite this entry: “Moriarty.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/moriarty. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.