Word.ws English Dictionary

oncer

/ˈwʌnsɚ/

oncer noun: a one-pound note.

Noun (1)

oncer (plural oncers)

  1. (historical, informal) A one-pound note.
    • On whatever point Jane’s eyes rested, through whichever line her gaze ran, she saw cheques being signed, credit-card counterfoils being scrawled across, standing orders being arranged, and cash – wholesome dosh, ponies, monkies, oncers, coins of the realm – flowing around like mercury, like some...1993, Will Self, My Idea of Fun
  2. (poetic) A person who does something once.
    • Could he but once see Nature as / In truth she is for ever, / What oncer would not fall in love?1944, W. H. Auden, The Sea and the Mirror: A Commentary on Shakespeare's The Tempest, Part 1. Prospero to Ariel
  3. (informal) A single sexual encounter between two individuals, a one-night stand.
  4. (informal) A person with whom one shares a single sexual encounter, a one-night stand.

Noun (2) capitalized: Oncer

Oncer (plural Oncers)

  1. (slang) A fan of the television series Once Upon a Time.
    • And fun because, well, he gets to interact with “Oncers” at fan events like PaleyFest and Comic Con […]2013 June, Hiko Mitsuzuka, “Charmed & Generous: Josh Dallas”, in Bello, number 47, page 14
    • Katy Lewis, a resident of Whitehorse, Yukon, is a 'Oncer'—a super fan of the popular TV show Once Upon a Time.2014, Matthew Hoekstra, "Once draws super fans to Steveston", The Richmond Review, 21 March 2014, page 1 (image caption)

Forms of oncer

pluraloncers
pluralOncers

Origin of oncer

From once + -er (relational suffix) or + -er (occupational suffix).

From once + -er.

Questions about oncer

What does oncer mean?
Oncer means a one-pound note.
What part of speech is oncer?
Oncer is a noun.
How do you pronounce oncer?
Oncer is pronounced /ˈwʌnsɚ/ (US).
What is the plural of oncer?
The plural of oncer is oncers.

Words near oncer in the dictionary

  1. once-over-lightly
  2. once-overs
  3. once-removed
  4. onced
  5. onceness
  6. oncer
  7. oncers
  8. onces
  9. oncet
  10. Oncești
  11. onch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: oncer (page history and authors); Oncer (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-US-oncer.wav.

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