Word.ws English Dictionary

Nerissa

/nəˈɹɪsə/

Nerissa proper noun: a female given name from Ancient Greek.

Proper noun

Nerissa

  1. A female given name from Ancient Greek.
    • Well, while I live, I’ll fear no other thing
      So sore as keeping safe Nerissa’s ring.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • When Nerissa saw the worm her immediate reaction was to kill, for she disliked its sliminess and crawlingness.1958, The Literary Review, volume 2, page 188

Origin of Nerissa

Coined by Shakespeare for The Merchant of Venice, apparently from Ancient Greek Νηρηΐς (Nērēḯs, “sea-nymph”).

Words that rhyme with Nerissa

Questions about Nerissa

What does Nerissa mean?
Nerissa means a female given name from Ancient Greek.
What part of speech is Nerissa?
Nerissa is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Nerissa?
Nerissa is pronounced /nəˈɹɪsə/.

Words near Nerissa in the dictionary

  1. nerion
  2. Nerios
  3. Neris
  4. Nerises
  5. nerisopam
  6. Nerissa
  7. neritaloside
  8. nerite
  9. nerites
  10. neritic
  11. neritid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Nerissa (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: “Nerissa.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nerissa. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.