Word.ws English Dictionary

nerdcore

UK/ˈnɜːdˌkɔː/US/ˈnɝdˌkɔɹ/

nerdcore noun: an intentionally nerdy style of hip-hop music.

Noun

nerdcore (uncountable)

  1. (humorous) An intentionally nerdy style of hip-hop music.
    • Many nerdcore anthems — “You Got Asperger’s” by MC Frontalot, “Fett’s Vette” by MC Chris, “View Source,” by Ytcracker (“Eagerly awaiting my macro advances/running with my beta cuz I’m taking chances”) — are as much efforts at comedy as they are attempts at sincere hip-hop.2007 August 5, Alex Williams, “Dungeons, Dragons and Dope Beats”, in New York Times
    • A nerdcore track would take loop samples not from popular industrial tracks, but from the synthesizers of a popular NES game like Dig Dug…2008 July, GameAxis Unwired
  2. (attributive, slang) The most dedicated nerds, especially in terms of computer ability.
    • We're tech reviewers, not nerdcore programmers…2007 December, HWM
    • But the warmest spot in my nerdcore heart is reserved for the old-school pleasures of the Wii Virtual Console.2009 March 28, Darren Zenko, “Exploring the Wii’s retro charms”, in Toronto Star

Examples of nerdcore in a sentence

  • Self-styled “nerdcore” rappers wear pocket protectors and rhyme about hard drives.2008, Benjamin Nugent, American Nerd: The Story of My People:
  • But it takes the right kind of noodle to make a great gaming rig worthy of the “nerdcore elite” (and we mean that in a good way) without spending a fortune.2008, Windows Vista magazine (Winter 2008)

Origin of nerdcore

From nerd + -core.

Questions about nerdcore

What does nerdcore mean?
Nerdcore means an intentionally nerdy style of hip-hop music.
How do you use nerdcore in a sentence?
Self-styled “nerdcore” rappers wear pocket protectors and rhyme about hard drives.
What part of speech is nerdcore?
Nerdcore is a noun.
How do you pronounce nerdcore?
Nerdcore is pronounced /ˈnɜːdˌkɔː/ (UK).

Words near nerdcore in the dictionary

  1. nerd-sniping
  2. nerdboy
  3. nerdboys
  4. nerdbrain
  5. nerdbrains
  6. nerdcore
  7. nerddom
  8. nerded out
  9. nerderati
  10. nerdery
  11. nerdette

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nerdcore (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: En-au-nerdcore.ogg.

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