onomasticon
UK/ˌɒ.nəʊˈmæs.tɪ.kən//ˌɑː.noʊˈmæs.tɪkən/
onomasticon noun: a book, list, or vocabulary of names, especially of people.
Noun
onomasticon (plural onomasticons or onomastica)
- A book, list, or vocabulary of names, especially of people.
- We looked up the origin of her name in an onomasticon.
Forms of onomasticon
| plural | onomasticons |
|---|---|
| plural | onomastica |
Origin of onomasticon
From Ancient Greek ὀνομαστικόν (onomastikón), neuter form of ὀνομαστικός (onomastikós, “belonging to names”), from ὀνομάζω (onomázō, “I name”), from ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”). The term onomastikón (collection of names, from ὄνομα/ónoma, ‘name’) describes learned works that are not arranged alphabetically but juxtapose synonyms and terms relating to the same semantic field. This principle of ordering is very old (it was already known in Near Eastern culture in the 2nd millennium BC; Lists) and undoubtedly was the most common one up to the Augustan period. Source: Onomastikon — Brill
Questions about onomasticon
- What does onomasticon mean?
- Onomasticon means a book, list, or vocabulary of names, especially of people.
- What part of speech is onomasticon?
- Onomasticon is a noun.
- How do you pronounce onomasticon?
- Onomasticon is pronounced /ˌɒ.nəʊˈmæs.tɪ.kən/ (UK).
- What is the plural of onomasticon?
- The plural of onomasticon is onomasticons.
Words near onomasticon in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: onomasticon (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-onomasticon.ogg.
Cite this entry: “onomasticon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/onomasticon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.