Word.ws English Dictionary

n-word

n-word noun: the word nigger or nigga.

Noun (1)

n-word (plural n-words)

  1. (euphemistic) The word nigger or nigga.
    • The prosecutor, his voice trembling, added that the "N-word" was so vile that he would not utter it.1995 January 14, Kenneth B. Noble, “Issue of Racism Erupts in Simpson Trial”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
    • Jackson's character plays an illegal arms dealer and uses the "n-word" throughout the film, which also stars Pam Grier.1998, Johnson Publishing Company (publisher), “Samuel L. Jackson Blasts Spike Lee For Criticizing Him For Using 'N-Word' In 'Jackie Brown'”, in Jet, volume 93, number 15, page 36
    Synonyms:
    n-bomb
  2. (euphemistic, by generalization) Any word, regardless of its starting letter, that is used oppressively, marginalizes or oppresses a group of people.
    • [It] has become ... an equivalent of the n word for Maori[s].2006, DLT, “Native Tongues”, in Total Chaos
    • "It's important to understand that for Indigenous people, this word ["savage"] is our N-word," said Douglas Stewart, an Indigenous teacher at Harrison Trimble High School in Moncton.2019 October 2, “'This word is our N-word': Indigenous teacher asks Urban Planet to drop racial slur”, in CBC
  3. (euphemistic) The word Nazi.
    • After that episode aired a new rule was posted: "Do not mention the N Word (Nazi)!"2009, Todd Wilbur, Top Secret Recipes Unlocked: All New Home Clones of America's Favorite Brand-Name Foods
    • The preceding poem inspired the “Not Say Nazi” movement to stamp out widespread ignorance and to abolish the N-word and the F-word.2014, Ian Tinny, Rex Curry, Rex Curry BFFs Analects, →ISBN
  4. The word nuclear.
    • Parkinson has to live with the dreaded “N” word. So feared is the word “nuclear” that there are those who balk at using such harmless phrases as “nuclear family”.1988 December 10, “Unclear Power”, in New Scientist, page 12
    • —and there is a large tendency, I think, to think of our sites totally in terms of the “n” word, the nuclear radioactive word, but 80 percent of the waste that we have on these sites is chemical hazardous waste , which makes us no different in that respect from all of the major industrial companies...1994 March 24, J. Bennett Johnston, US. Senator from Louisiana, Effect of the Administration's Superfund Reauthorization Proposals on the Department of Energy's Environmental Restoration and Waste...
  5. A negation word, such as not, nobody, or nothing.
    • Hence, the reasoning applied to (15) above extends to (20), leading us to conclude that the n-word rien,2011, Vivian Dèprez, The Evolution of Negation, page 242
  6. A Danish/Swedish/Norwegian noun of the common gender (their indefinite article being en), as opposed to t-words, nouns of the neuter gender (their indefinite article being et).

Noun (2) capitalized: N-word

N-word (plural N-words)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of n-word.
    • Some middle schoolers are learning that history isn’t always meant to be celebrated after the N-word was inadvertently printed on the front cover of their yearbooks.2017 June 7, AnneClaire Stapleton, “Students get yearbooks with N-word on the cover”, in CNN, archived from the original on 30 Jul 2019

Examples of n-word in a sentence

  • I do not use “children”, because I see that word as being an equivalent to the N-word in this context [the out-right slavery that those under 18 face].2004 February-March [1978 December 14], (I)An-ok Ta Chai, “Youth Liberation”, in Slingshot, number #80:
  • That well-spoken token, who ain't been heard / The only white rapper who's allowed to say the N-word2011, “Backpackers”, in Camp, performed by Childish Gambino:
  • [Pain and sorrow are feelings] that has not lessened no matter how many times I hear the n-word.2013, “Combating Huck Finn 's Censorship”, in Julie Landsman, Robert Simmons III, Steven Grineski, editors, Talking About Race:
  • [I]t was effectively the N-word for Brown people.2022, Ali Hassan, Is There Bacon in Heaven?, page 128:

Synonyms of n-word

Forms of n-word

pluraln-words
alternative formN-word
pluralN-words

Words formed from n-word

Phrases with n-word

Questions about n-word

What does n-word mean?
N-word means the word nigger or nigga.
How do you use n-word in a sentence?
I do not use “children”, because I see that word as being an equivalent to the N-word in this context [the out-right slavery that those under 18 face].
What part of speech is n-word?
N-word is a noun.
What is the plural of n-word?
The plural of n-word is n-words.

Words near n-word in the dictionary

  1. n-tuples
  2. n-type
  3. n-types
  4. N-up
  5. N-V
  6. n-word
  7. n-word pass
  8. n-word passes
  9. n-words
  10. n.
  11. N. Am.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: n-word (page history and authors); N-word (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: “n-word.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/n-word. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.